Columbus鈥� annual kicks off this week and, like just about everything else this year, it looks a little different.
In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the sixth season of the week-long festival launched Monday under the name VIVO Reimagined. For the past five seasons, VIVO鈥檚 annual festival has presented world-class chamber music concerts at venues around Columbus near the end of summer.
This week鈥檚 all-virtual series of performances, open rehearsals and round table conversations is the first of a planned series of three 鈥渕ovements鈥� of virtual events that will unfold throughout the 2020-21 concert season, VIVO leaders say.
鈥�With COVID, we鈥檝e had to completely change our timeline for how we think about what we鈥檙e doing,鈥� said VIVO violist, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director John Stulz in a recent interview. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just committed to continuing to build community through music, even if it鈥檚 mainly in the digital sphere.鈥�
Featured musicians for this week鈥檚 VIVO Reimagined: Movement One series include, among others, Stulz, VIVO Music Festival Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director Siwoo Kim, Calidore String Quartet violinist Jeff Myers and Alicia Hui, principal second violinist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
Kim says the dates for VIVO Reimagined: Movements Two and Three will be announced as the season progresses and as safety dictates.
This weekend, audiences can watch VIVO musicians rehearse in VIVO Studio, Saturday, Aug. 29 at 4 p.m. The rehearsal will be livestreamed on YouTube from GrooveU, a music industry entrepreneurship program based in Dublin. Musicians will be answering questions during the rehearsal via YouTube鈥檚 chat function.
VIVO Homeland will be released online Sun., Aug. 30 at 4 p.m. The program features VIVO musicians playing chamber music masterworks by Haydn, Kodaly and Schumann, performed in the Columbus Museum of Art鈥檚 Derby Court.
Audience members can view VIVO Homeland free of charge, in keeping with VIVO鈥檚 pay-what-you-want pricing policy. Those making donations of at least $10 before the end of that livestream will be given access to a post-concert reception with the musicians on Zoom immediately after the livestream ends.
All of the festival鈥檚 virtual experiences can be viewed at time of release and for at least one week immediately afterwards through the VIVO Music Festival鈥檚 Those experiences include events from earlier this week 鈥� VIVO Studio, a roundtable conversation with festival musicians, as well as tonight鈥檚 (Aug. 25) virtual new music concert VIVO Postcards, presented in collaboration with the Johnstone Fund for New Music.
Beyond VIVO Homeland, VIVO will release video performances and musician conversations on its website every Sunday at 4 p.m. throughout the 20-21 concert season, as part of the VIVO Retrospectives series.
VIVO Retrospective performances draw on the video archive of performances from earlier VIVO Music Festival seasons.
鈥淲ith things so unpredictable,鈥� Kim said, 鈥渨e鈥檙e gauging the safety and comfortability of everyone.鈥�
