“We are all about challenges,” said Louis St. Pierre, president of the board of the Sault Symphony Orchestra.
These days, the challenges are daunting for people such as musicians, actors, athletes and waiters.
In other words, anyone who typically depends on crowds and gatherings has had their work turned upside down.
The local orchestra recently announced what it describes as a “tough, but responsible decision” to postpone the 2020-2021 season. It hopes that concerts will be held again in the new year.
While the orchestra is anxious to start playing again, it’s also determined to make sure postponing the season doesn’t turn the volume off completely.
The group established a new Patreon page, which allows music lovers to sign up and support the orchestra at various levels. This provides access to new content created by members of the orchestra.
The page allows the orchestra to stay connected with supporters and make sure they don’t go without during these trying times, said Sara McCleary.
McCleary, who is on the orchestra board and spearheads the Patreon project, said the page can also provide some needed income “that will keep us afloat to make it through the pandemic.”
She said it can be an effective tool after the pandemic, especially in attracting a younger audience and reaching out to people outside the area. There will likely also be a number of people who may initially be nervous about venturing out into crowds when COVID subsides.
The Patreon link is on the orchestra Facebook page or you can log on directly here.
“Once we get back in the swing of things, we will be able to have features and promote concerts, perhaps have clips of concerts or past concerts,” said St. Pierre.
Like McCleary, he believes Patreon may help attract new supporters, especially younger people to the work done by Sault Symphony Orchestra.
A Sootoday story in 2019 outlined difficulties the symphony faced attracting a wider audience. The article mentioned that attendance at Musicfest: Bratwurst, Beer and Beethoven was so low that the symphony had to cancel the event after 26 years.
“Young people – millennials, even non-millennials -- are just not interested in attending concerts. They are feeling a disconnect emotionally with the music,” said Dr. Lawrence Chong, orchestra president at the time. “We’re trying to get that revived.”
“That was our next challenge,” said St. Pierre. “We have to grow our crowds because the audience is shrinking. That was our topic of discussion and then boom,” COVID hit.
“Everything is always a challenge, so what’s one more,” said St. Pierre.
“We had done so much work over the last two or three years getting everything under control, getting spending under control,” he added.
Restarting has some complications for the local orchestra because of its international composition. Close to half of the musicians come from the United States, including conductor and artistic director John Wilkinson.
“Even if we want to get together, we can’t,” said St. Pierre. “We could probably put a small chamber orchestra together.”
It’s yet another challenge, but St. Pierre said the Sault is not alone.
COVID had a huge impact on all the arts regardless of size, across Canada and around the world.
“We emphasize that some 76 per cent of orchestras’ revenues are vulnerable at this time, their potential loss is highly destabilizing,” wrote Orchestras Canada in a recent submission to Parliament.
St. Pierre, however, maintains a sunny, positive outlook on things.
“Once the floodgates open, people are going to be so happy to get out and hear live music again. If we can survive this, I think we are going to be in good shape,” he said.