You can close concert halls and you can ban public gatherings, but it’s impossible to stop music playing. The Australian Chamber Orchestra has committed to that cause as we all bunker down during the coronavirus pandemic, announcing a digital season of music to engage audiences and raise spirits remotely.
ACO HomeCasts is a digital season of musical performances, interviews and lessons curated by ACO artistic director Richard Tognetti. This is the first time that the orchestra has, ah, orchestrated a full digital season and has even equipped all its musicians with mini home studios. This means they’ll all be able create and broadcast sweet sonic works safely from their homes in intimate concerts.
The digital season contains six separate serialised streams. These are:
ACO in Concert: Facebook watch parties featuring never-before-released ACO concerts with commentary from current ACO musicians (first and third Saturday of every month)
ACO Backstage: Ask-me-anything interviews, Spotify playlists and profiles about the orchestra’s musicians (every Tuesday)
Home to Home: Live concerts broadcast from the homes of ACO musicians (every Friday)
Kids and Families: Content specially curated for children, their families and educators. Includes instrument lessons, podcasts and online educational modules (second and fourth Monday of every month)
From the Vault: See freshly released archival footage from the ACO’s history (first and third Thursday of every month)
Audience Requests: Got a burning request? The ACO is inviting you to send in requests for performances, podcast topics and footage from the vault (first Sunday of every month)
Tognetti said: “We are committed to providing the ACO’s national and international audiences with engaging musical experiences that are curious, quirky and moving, so have approached ACO HomeCasts with as much consideration as we do when putting together our national concert seasons.”
The schedule of content for each week will be released every Monday – visit the ACO HomeCasts website to find out more and to start watching.