The leadership of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is deciding what changes made because of the COVID-19 pandemic might become permanent as restrictions continue to be lifted.
CEO Christina Littlejohn says the organization is focusing on two goals: rebuilding the audience for performances and programming at the Robinson Center, and being accessible for students and patrons who can’t attend in person.
"We're going to continue to film our masterworks [concerts] and hang on to those for subscribers that can't come to our concerts, but also maybe there's some assisted living homes, there’s more places that we’ll be able to stream those into that weren’t able to see us. Now we know how to do it. We actually know what we're doing, and we can actually make that happen," she said.
Littlejohn credits her staff and musicians for moving programming online early in the pandemic. She says teaching music lessons via Zoom and the organization's Bedtime with Bach series helped musicians and patrons stay connected and reach more people than ever before. She says the organization wants find ways to continue that trend now that Covid restrictions are being lifted.
"I anticipate we'll be creating a number of pay–what–you–can tickets for our concerts, because people have been impacted [by the pandemic]. We don't know how, but we do know that they have," Littlejohn says. "Since music can inspire people to celebrate, or music can heal, we want to make sure again that we're making it possible for people to hear us."
According to Littlejohn, donations from subscribers and the Paycheck Protection Program loan from the federal government allowed the organization to retain all full-time staff and musicians throughout the pandemic. She says the symphony's modified season ended last week with a socially-distanced concert attended by around 400 people wearing masks. The Robinson Center in Little Rock is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which still recommend masks and six feet of distance between unvaccinated people in large, indoor gatherings.
