Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco Symphony’s performance home, has been empty for two months.
“As the whole world turns to streaming by necessity … San Francisco Symphony, whose European tour and balance of the 2019-20 season were wiped out by the pandemic, is busier than ever,” writes Janos Gereben in Monday’s (5/25) San Francisco Classical Voice. “As reported by the orchestra’s staff, [the orchestra is] very much still at work (an accomplishment in itself): ‘We saw a significant increase across key performance indicators for Facebook (134%), Twitter (361%), and YouTube…. Making our Keeping Score series available for free global online streaming on YouTube helped drive a more than 999% lift in subscribers and a 237% increase in views in April. The SFS YouTube channel has surpassed 15,000 subscribers, and the Keeping Score episodes have 225,000 views to date…. Eugene Izotov’s Oblivion became our most-viewed video on the SFS Facebook page, with a reach of over 500K. This resulted in a dramatic, sustained lift in engagement (190% increase in net page likes compared to March) that has positively affected engagement with newer videos.’ San Francisco Opera has been … streaming complete productions from the past … engaged in social media, and holding online workshops…. Streaming triumphs because music is a necessity, especially at times like this.”
