California’s Pacific Symphony is partnering with public health and epidemiology experts at the University of California, Irvine on safety protocols that will allow the orchestra to record concerts—without audiences—indoors and outdoors. Since March, the Pacific Symphony has presented multiple online events but has not convened in person. UC Irvine public health and epidemiology experts have reviewed Pacific Symphony’s plans for mitigating employees’ risk of exposure to COVID-19 and recommended ways to improve infrastructure, procedures, and policies to protect against it. UCI experts recently conducted a walk-through at Pacific Symphony’s concert hall, Segerstrom Concert Hall, and provided several online training sessions for staff and musicians. The university team created templates for the orchestra to establish procedures for staff screening, symptom and temperature checks, staff self-monitoring, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and masking. Assistant Concertmaster Jeanne Skrocki, the musicians’ representative, and symphony management are members of the group involved in the project with UCI. Symphony President and CEO John Forsyte said, “We know the musicians have missed playing and our audiences have missed hearing them,” and that the recommendations and training sessions are “the first important step” in getting the musicians together to perform and rehearse.
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