Winston-Salem Symphony Adapts To The Pandemic

Like all arts organizations in the Triad, the Winston-Salem Symphony was hit hard by the pandemic lockdowns and social distance measures. But far from shutting down, the orchestra — made up of roughly 80 musicians — has adapted in creative ways under its new Music Director Timothy Redmond. He recently spoke with WFDD's David Ford.

Interview Highlights

On the first days of COVID-19 shutdowns:

We'd just released all of the news about what we should have been performing this season. We were very excited about it. We were excited about the response it was getting. You know, I was getting to know not only the orchestra, but the community and our patrons. So, yeah, then the world closes down and the concert hall doors shut. And I think what was striking is never for a moment was there any hint that we would do nothing. So, right from the outset, the question was, well, how can we adapt? And of course, looking back, we were fabulously optimistic as to what we might be able to do. You know, what we'll be, of course, will be quiet for a few weeks and months, but then by the summer, of course, everything will be back to normal. As we came to terms with the longer scale that we were looking at, personally, it took me a while to shake off the idea that we wouldn't be able to do as much as we'd originally anticipated, nor that it would take that form. But the moment that I moved beyond that and just accepted that, OK, this gives us other opportunities, in many respects, it allowed us to be super creative.

On adapting to the pandemic:

For us, it all became very real very quickly when we did this little Rainbow Over Winston. It's just a minute arrangement of ... "Over the Rainbow." We had literally the last hours before shelter-in-place came in. We had the opportunity to shoot a little video on a rooftop. So, we had three musicians: a horn, a clarinet, and a cello, each six feet apart outside with a camera crew. And I was in London at the time. I'd come back after our last concert and I got this phone call saying, ‘Hey, Tim, we've got this opportunity to shoot a one-minute segment. Any chance you could arrange "Over the Rainbow" for these three instruments?' I said, ‘Sure. When are we doing it?' and they said, ‘Two hours' time.' So I quickly got on the computer, made this little arrangement, emailed over the parts, and it was filmed, and it went out. And instantly we were getting thousands of views. And in that moment, literally days after everything shut down, we suddenly had this inkling that we could create stuff that would reach people that we would not normally reach. But more to the point, we could do something really important and significant for the city of Winston-Salem and to allow the name of the city to be shared far and wide and make everyone realize that there's this wonderful musical cultural experience in the town and wonderful musicians who live and work here.

On lessons learned during the pandemic:

I've learned that being in a space with musicians is something I will never take for granted again. I did a lot of virtual projects between March and September 2020 in which I never met another human being except on a screen. And it was extraordinary — the collaborations with musicians all around the world and there's been some wonderful things that have come out of it. But when in September and October finally I was able to work with an orchestra in the same space, every single time there was an absolute joy in the room — an appreciation that what we do, what we share is extraordinary.

The symphony's current “Center Stage” concert features flutist Kathryn Levy playing the "Renaissance Concerto for flute" by Lukas Foss, and cellist Brooks Whitehouse performing Sir Edward Elgar's "Cello Concerto." It's available for streaming on-demand both on Stage Pass and on Artarie through April 13.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This transcript was lightly edited for clarity.