“The San Francisco Symphony’s solution to [the COVID-19] conundrum is a new outreach program, called 1:1, that strips music down to its bare bones,” writes Joshua Kosman in Friday’s (8/7) San Francisco Chronicle. “One musician, one listener, communicating through music in the most primal way. On a windy afternoon Thursday, Aug. 6, principal trombonist Timothy Higgins was holding forth on one of the outdoor terraces of Davies Symphony Hall, providing bespoke entertainment for longtime Symphony subscriber Abby Johnson…. Against the backdrop of rumbling traffic and construction noise rising from Van Ness Avenue, Higgins unleashed an alluring stream of music by Schumann, Vaughan Williams, Strauss and Bach. [The series], which launched July 16 and occurs every Thursday, is one of a range of initiatives that the orchestra has begun…. The individual performances run about 30 minutes…. The organizers run them back-to-back … alternating between Davies’ two outdoor terraces for maximal efficiency…. There’s … an intimacy and directness about the setup that has its own appeal. Cellist Amos Yang delivered a helpful impromptu introduction Thursday before performing Bach’s Sixth Cello Suite, intermingled with some personal reflections about life during the pandemic. Just as touchingly, his audience talked back.”
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