Virtual Performances & Content

A recent multi-interview article from Chorus America considered the post-COVID future for virtual performances.

I want to go on record in saying that I think it’s a bad idea to lean into streaming and posting of concerts long-term. I think it’s bad because it undermines the choral art, which must be communal in nature. It is possible to be moved by a virtual performance. It is also possible to check your Instagram or cook dinner while watching a virtual performance.

Now, more than ever, we need live performances. It’s why I won’t be streaming my performances online or publicizing that they’ll be available online later.

I was particularly jarred by many of the interviewees thinking of choral performances less as artistic moments shared with an audience, and more as content to be distributed. The commodification of every art form is maybe best exemplified by this use of “content” to describe everything from blogs to videos to compositions. I really hope that we don’t all decide to think of concerts as “content,” too. They are so much more than that.

Consider this quote and ask, what business can you imagine that the quote doesn’t apply to? Does a concert really qualify as content in the way it’s described here?

“It’s incumbent upon us to create additional content that speaks to whatever we’re presenting.”

From Trendspotting: Choruses Look Beyond COVID

For the sake of equal access for all, there is certainly an argument to be made for making videos of performances available, and I celebrate that. But as we are facing an audience out of practice with attending concerts, and ensembles in desperate need of sharing their art directly with people, I think we need to draw firm lines around how we make them available.