Concerts and Events

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Dear Friends of the Anchorage Symphony,

In a normal season, this is that time of year when we are sending you brochures, sharing the amazing concerts planned for you, and taking subscription orders in preparation to do what is our life’s work - bringing Great Music to Every Life.
As you know all too well - this is not a normal season. Since we were last together in the concert hall on February 29, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra (ASO) cancelled our season finale and our state went into hunker down mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last three months, we have been busy adapting our Symphony of Wines fundraising event, creating our Virtual Season Finale and other virtual performances like Alaska’s Flag, and applying for loans and grants to help sustain us through this unusual time.

In addition, ASO Staff spent countless hours monitoring developments through the CDC, State and Municipal Health Departments, attending numerous national and local webinars, panel discussions and meetings regarding COVID-19, monitoring national surveys, and conducting our own surveys of patrons and musicians.
Below is a condensed, yet important list of data we have learned.
  • - The State of Alaska Department of Health and Human Services has stated that large gatherings are one of the top four ways that COVID-19 is accelerated.
  • - When contact tracing those who have tested positive for COVID-19, a close personal contact is anyone the person has spent more than 15 minutes with. (Information from the State of Alaska DHSS Site)
  • - Social distancing is currently mandated at large gatherings. In the Atwood Concert Hall social distancing allows for 350 patrons to attend, and for 15-30 musicians to be on stage. Seating capacity in the concert hall is nearly 2,000. The Anchorage Symphony typically has over 80 musicians performing on stage.
  • - The Municipality and State have given no indication when 2,000 people will be allowed to gather.
  • Recent surveys we have conducted have revealed that:
  • - Only 20% of our subscribers and other patrons feel safe attending events in the Atwood Concert Hall right now and need no additional safety precautions. 
  • - 80% of this same group is not ready to return to the concert hall without additional precautions, such as social distancing, masks, cleaning protocols, etc.
  • - 30% of subscribers indicated a vaccine must be available before they will feel safe enough to return to the concert hall.  
  • - ASO Musicians share your concerns:  their survey responses match almost exactly the results of the subscriber and patron surveys.
We had hoped to be greeting you in the concert hall this fall for our 75th Season; however, for the safety and health of our audiences and musicians, last week the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel our traditional concert season through the remainder of 2020.

While we may not be gathering in the hall for classical and pops concerts, this decision does not mean we will be silent, on hiatus, or dormant.

THERE WILL BE MUSIC!  
We will Symphony On.
 
We owe it to YOU our faithful friends – the community that built this orchestra. We owe it to our founders Art and Eleanor Braendel who came together with 15 other musicians in the mid-1940s to share classical music in what was then the most northern orchestra in our country! Art and Eleanor dedicated 60 years of their lives to create the vibrant orchestra that is YOUR Anchorage Symphony Orchestra! And we owe it to the incredible musicians of the Anchorage Symphony who yearn to perform great music with their colleagues for the community they love.

Anchorage Symphony Musicians, our creative and talented Music Director Randy Fleischer, and the ASO Staff are working now to reimagine how we bring you a compelling and engaging unconventional season. We plan to stream live performances from our Atwood Concert Hall home and other locations, create virtual performances and develop new ways to share music with you.
We will Symphony On. We will be Symphony Strong. And we will Play On for you, the community we are so proud to serve!

Finally, please know that your responses to our Symphony of Wines, Virtual Season Finale and virtual Alaska’s Flag have uplifted and inspired us. Many of you responded to our survey asking how you can help keep the Anchorage Symphony strong and sustained, performing great music for our community far into the future. We are profoundly grateful for your concern; we will need your help, and we will be asking for your support in the weeks ahead.

For now, please stay safe, stay healthy and stay connected as we prepare to SYMPHONY ON!

Thank you.
Be well,
Sherri Burkhart Reddick
Executive Director
ASO@YourASO.org
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The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra is funded, in part, by the Atwood Foundation, Richard L and Diane M Block Foundation , Municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage Assembly, Alaska State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and through the generosity of many individuals and corporate community leaders.
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