Classical Revolution's New Socially Distant Initiatives

LIVESTREAM CONCERT SERIES

VIRTUAL ORCHESTRA

San Francisco, CA, April 2nd, 2020- As a response to the lockdown measures brought about by the global Covid-19 outbreak, Classical Revolution is undertaking two ongoing projects, a Livestream Concert Series and a Virtual Orchestra.

These new projects are efforts to put musicians to work while developing new ways of reaching existing and new audiences.  Musicians around the world, largely dependent on regular gigs for their income, have seen their livelihoods vanish, abruptly and completely.  This has happened at just the moment when we as a global community need the arts more than ever, as we deal with isolation and uncertainty. Sometimes the most creative solutions are born from a simple “What if?”  What if we could find a way for musicians to perform, even as venues are closed for an unpredictable length of time? 

The Livestream Concert Series presents regular online performances featuring musicians from around the globe performing in their living rooms.  The first event took place on Saturday March 28th, lasted 9 full hours, and included 16 musicians sheltered in place in California, New Hampshire, Austin, Montreal, France, and Germany.  Noteworthy musicians on this event included violinist Mads Tolling, formerly of the Turtle Island Quartet, violinist Johnny Gandelsman of Brooklyn Rider, and cellist Rushad Eggleston.

A weekly full-day festival on Saturdays has been established, with the second event taking place on April 4th.  This 8 hour event features 19 musicians streaming from New York City, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.  Amongst the all-star lineup are globetrotting cellist Dave Eggar, New York based composer / violist Lev ‘Ljova’ Zhurbin, SF based Del Sol String Quartet, Bay Area folk duo Foxtails Brigade, and Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt of the Dover Quartet performing with her husband and brother-in-law, Brook and Brendan Speltz of the Escher String Quartet, 

Besides the weekly Saturday events, Livestream Concerts will also take place on famous composers’ birthdays, which is a longstanding Classical Revolution concert tradition.  Composer Birthday Bashes are regularly occurring concert events dedicated to music by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc on their birthdays. A Livestream Concert event took place on Wednesday April 1st, celebrating the 147th birthday anniversary of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff featuring live performances by Allison Lovejoy in San Francisco and Dhilanthi Fernando in Chicago, as well as recorded performances from several friends of Classical Revolution and other notable performers.  Upcoming Composer Birthday Bashes are being planned for Sergei Prokofiev on April 27th, Tchaikovsky and Brahms on May 6th, Gabriel Faure on May 12th, Erik Satie on May 17th, and Robert Schumann on June 6th.

These Livestream events are currently being hosted on Classical Revolution’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/classicalrev, and reposted to www.classicalrevolution.org.  Interested musicians can email info@classicalrevolution.org if interested in performing on the series.

The Classical Revolution Virtual Orchestra envisions an entire orchestra performing together, each from their own home or studio.  Remote multitracking recording was made popular by Eric Whitacre in his Virtual Choir. Similar efforts have been released recently by musicians from the Toronto Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and other ensembles.    Classical Revolution is adapting this process to record an orchestra made up of musicians from around the world recording in their homes or studios. The first project is a remote multi-track recording of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture. More than 20 submissions have been received as of April 2nd, from all over the United States and Canada, with interest expressed from musicians in various other countries.  The goal is to spread the word to make this a truly global orchestra recording. The deadline for submissions for the current project is ongoing until the project is marked as closed. An updated recording is planned to be released every Monday.  

The Classical Revolution Virtual Orchestra will be an ongoing effort, with future  recordings coming from the classical symphonic catalog, arrangements of pop and rock covers, and original music of various styles.  The next project is planned to be be announced the week of April 6th. All information will be posted to https://www.classicalrevolution.org/virtual-orchestra.

As we all adapt to our new reality, Classical Revolution is embarking on these two new efforts, and we are inviting those who have the means to make a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, InterMusic SF.  By supporting these projects, you are helping our music community to survive in these changing times.  

Classical Revolution was founded in the fall of 2006 by Charith Premawardhana along with several colleagues who were all recent alumni from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, with the goal of bringing live chamber music performances to more people in more places.  Weekly events took place at Revolution Cafe in San Francisco’s Mission District, which is also the namesake of Classical Revolution. As the events increased in popularity, the organization expanded to performing in venues all over San Francisco and the Bay Area, including the Legion of Honor and de Young Museum, Yoshi’s SF, and the Fillmore Auditorium.

Friends and colleagues around the world began hearing about Classical Revolution’s efforts through articles in the New York Times, Strings Magazine, Wall Street Journal, and other notable publications.  With the goal of inclusiveness at the core of the organization, a network of chapters was established, with regular Classical Revolution events happening in cities around the world.

Recent efforts include a year-long performance cycle of all 9 Beethoven Symphonies in San Francisco, culminating in a concert of the 9th Symphony at Grace Cathedral with a 70 piece orchestra, 80 piece choir, and 1000 people in attendance.

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