Elgin Symphony Orchestra discusses re-opening plans for upcoming seasons
ELGIN – The Elgin Symphony Orchestra is plowing ahead with its community outreach three-concert series Fridays on the Farm: The Four Seasons at The Venue at Goebbert’s in Pingree Grove. This outdoor spring and summer festival replaced the spring concert schedule at the Hemmens in Elgin due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Erik Malmquist, executive director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (ESO), explained that even though Hemmens has been totally shuttered, “we made it our entire mission to be about community engagement.”
Looming large on the horizon is the return of the ESO at Hemmens in October in this COVID adapted season.
“We would have announced our fall season in February, but we delayed announcing the ESO schedule until May. We want to wait and see how the ‘world develops’ so we are hoping to make announcements in May and have single tickets on sale by June 15 for the upcoming season,” Malmquist said.
Opening night will be detailed in an upcoming public announcement. However, Malmquist provided information on what’s expected on opening night. On the schedule for opening night is Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, a symphonic poem for orchestra in four movements. “He wrote three pieces in the early 20th century as his Roman trilogy. Respighi wrote Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome, and Festivals of Rome. These are musical postcards from the Italian composer’s home,” Malmquist said. Pines of Rome will be conducted by Canadian Maestra Tania Miller, distinguished for her 14 years as music director of Canada’s Victoria Symphony.
Reopening Hemmens is good news for the audience, music staff, concert musicians, and Elgin’s economy, according to Malmquist. He recalls how COVID restrictions led to closing down the 2020 season after the March 7 Pop’s Concert.
“We had to cancel two of our final classic concerts and our kids concert,” Malmquist said.
Ticket revenue took a big hit from the fallout of COVID closings on the season. Revenue from ticket sales accounts for 30 percent of the ESO annual budget and represented a loss of at least $650,000.
Malmquist said, “We had quite a substantial amount of ticket money already collected for the upcoming season which we had to offer as a refund, but we received about 35 percent of concert goers donating their tickets back to us.”
Malmquist recognizes challenges ahead besides straight up financial challenges. With Hemmens closed until possibly October, he is responsible for scheduling music programs that’ll bring patrons back. Malmquist is aware that for some patrons, concert going stopped being part of their routine over a year ago. He gives as an example how he used to dine out often until COVID hit and restaurants were forced into closing indoor dining for a time.
“I used to eat out so many nights a week, now that I’ve had a year of eating in, I know more recipes,” Malmquist explained. “People are out of the habit,” he said.
Malmquist and the ESO felt a bridge phase with spring and summer outdoor concerts at Goebbert’s Farm with a COVID safe venue could bring people back into the habit of enjoying world class music live in concert. The ESO will perform in a tented space at The Venue at Goebbert’s Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard. A partnership with Goebbert’s Farm last fall allowed for a successful experimental test in September of an outdoor concert but with a smaller audience of 100 rather than 150 people projected for Fridays on the Farm.
“We’re hoping that even after COVID mitigations are a thing of the past, we will still probably play concerts at Goebbert’s Farm,” Malmquist said.
Just to be sure, a top priority for ESO are safety protocols including air flow, sanitizing practices, and current guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Restore Illinois Phase. Protocols such as temperature checks, face covering, social distancing, and health screening questions will be monitored.
The Friday on the Farm for May 21 is scheduled for chamber orchestra performances at 2 p.m. and at 7 p.m. under the music direction of Andrew Grams of the ESO. The program features the music of Astor Piazzolla and star violinist Karen Gomyo, closing with Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
The other performances at The Venue at Goebbert’s in Pingree Grove for Fridays on the Farm are July 2, a full orchestra for American Masters and August 6, Maestro Grams’ farewell concert for Darkness to Light with the full ESO orchestra.
Concert performances on a smaller scale over the past several months were a benefit to the community mission and ESO concert musicians. Malmquist ran through the list of four small community engagement performances. “One was the ESO brass section playing for essential workers at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin. We had a quartet concert for low income seniors in collaboration with the Housing Authority of Elgin. We did a string trio concert at Food for Greater Elgin and played to help celebrate the completion of new homes for Habitat for Humanity,” Malmquist said.
The ESO is not an orchestra where concert musicians hold full-time salaried positions. When the orchestra isn’t playing, the members aren’t getting paid, according to Malmquist. “This is why we made every effort to find little concerts that we could do and little events that a community can get involved in during COVID. Our musicians are the hardest hit of anyone.” Malmquist quipped, “We made our mission in the fall to offer work to every musician which is complicated because it’s very difficult to find repertoire to engage your piccolo player.”
Concert attendees from Huntley, Elgin, West and East Dundee, the Barrington area, Hampshire, and other outlying areas hadn’t made Hemmens a destination for some time now. Malmquist knows this has affected the economy of Elgin. “We are trying to encourage as many people as possible not just to come downtown for the concert, but also to enjoy shopping downtown and to dine out downtown before or after the concert,” Malmquist said.
Box Office (847) 888-4000 and website is elginsymphony.org.
The Venues for ESO are Hemmens Cultural Center at 45 Symphony Way, Elgin, North Shore Center for Performing Arts at 9501 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, and Raue Center for the Arts at 26 N. Williams Street, Crystal Lake.
