The concert halls that are reopening following the coronavirus lockdown

The concert halls that are reopening following the coronavirus lockdown

An up-to-date guide to the concert halls and opera houses across the world which are reopening with social distancing guidelines following the global coronavirus lockdown

Published: June 5, 2020 at 2:38 pm

Academy of Ancient Music

The Academy of Ancient Music are returning to the stage for the first time since lockdown on 15 August at 7pm BST at VOCES8 Centre, observing social distancing measures. There will be no woodwind or brass sections present.

With no audience in the venue, audience members can buy tickets to access a live HD stream of the performance.

The programme includes works by Purcell, Bach, Vivaldi and Marcello. Tickets available here.

Vienna Philharmonic

The Vienna Philharmonic will return to the Musikverein on 5 June to resume live performances with audiences. Audiences will be restricted to a maximum of 100 guests, all of whom will be required to wear a mask.

This will be increased to 250 guests in August, with alternating seating patterns implemented in each row.

Concerts will be no longer than 70 minutes without an interval.

The orchestra's first concert back in the hall will be Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, led and conducted by pianist Daniel Barenboim.

There will be no public sale of tickets: all tickets will go to family members and supporters of the orchestra. Subscription concerts will resume in October.

BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Although the first six weeks of this year's BBC Proms will be held online, with a series of archive concerts, the BBC is hoping to be able to move back into London's Royal Albert Hall for the final two weeks of the season from 28 August.

More info here.

Ravenna Festival, Italy

The Italian festival will restart from 21 June, with its opening concert led by Riccardo Muti at the open-air 15th-century fortress, Rocca Brancaleone. Its programme has been amended since the coronavirus lockdown, and will be announced in due course.

Basque National Orchestra

A short series of eight concerts will be performed by a smaller ensemble of around 50 musicians, all of whom will be following social distancing guidelines. Masks will be compulsory until musicians go on stage, and a 2m distance must be maintained at all times. The wind and percussion sections will be surrounded by protective screens.

Although there will still be no audiences, each concert will be recorded and broadcast on Saturday mornings at 11am from 30 May on ETB2.

Works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Mozart and Richard Strauss are on the programmes.

It is the first orchestra in Spain to be returning to the stage.

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra has been able to perform throughout lockdown, but without their music director Daniel Harding. On Friday 5 June, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform its first concert with him, since he is now able to fly to Stockholm.

Although there will be no audience, the performance will be filmed and broadcast live on Berwaldhallen Play and Swedish radio station P2 at 7pm CET.

Featuring mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenburg and members of the Swedish Radio Choir, there will be 50 musicians on stage, for a performance of Mahler, Purcell, Bach and Sibelius, with readings of three poems by Tomas Tranströmer.

Programme:

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 Mahler: 'Der Einsame im Herbst' from Das Lied von der Erde Purcell: Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary Bach: 'Erbarme dich' from St Matthew Passion

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

The Norwegian orchestra is returning to the Grieghallen in June for five concerts which will be streamed on Bergenphillive.

The details are lifted below. The concert on 15 June is of particular note, as it celebrates both Grieg's birthday and the lifting of the majority of lockdown restrictions in Norway.

4 June, 7.30pm CEST:

Melina Mandozzi (violin), Sigur Greve (oboe) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner

Grieg: Evening in the Mountains Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Oboe and Strings Britten: Sinfonietta Grieg: The Last Spring

11 June, 7.30pm CEST:

Fruda Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen (cello) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Eivind Gullberg Jensen

Stravinsky: Symphonies of Winds Haydn: Cello Concerto Schumann: Symphony No. 4

15 June, 6pm and 8.30pm CEST

Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner

Grieg: Sigurd Jorsalfar, 'Homage March' Grieg: Lyrical Pieces Grieg: Piano Concerto

18 June, 7.30pm CEST

Ilze Klava (viola), Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen (cello), Sigurd Øgaard (organ) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner

Klosters Music Festival, Switzerland

The Swiss festival is set to still take place from 31 July to 9 August 2020. The programme centres around Beethoven, with performances of the great composer's Symphonies Nos 3 and 7, with Martin Helmchen playing the Fifth Piano Concerto and Veronika Eberle performing the Violin Concerto.

Artists featured include conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Il Pomo d'Oro, the Pavel Haas Quartet and pianist András Schiff, the latter of whom will perform Beethoven's last three piano sonatas.

To comply with social distancing guidelines, alternate seats in the auditorium will be kept free and a clear guidance system for visitors to navigate the concert hall.

Taiwan Philharmonic

The Taiwan Philharmonic returned to Taiwan's National Theater and Concert Hall for its first concert after lockdown on 24 May to an audience of 450.

The orchestra are also performing a concert on 30 May, which will be livestreamed here, and on 12 June, livestreamed here.

City Halls, Glasgow

BBC Radio 3 has announced that it will broadcast its first live classical concerts in Scotland since lockdown, with Lunchtime Concerts held at City Halls in Glasgow from Tuesday 14 to Friday 17 July.

Tune into Radio 3's Lunchtime Concert at 1pm. You can listen via BBC Sounds or watch live with HD video on the City Halls website.

Performers will appear in the empty hall obeying strict social distancing measures, and will include pianists Steven Osborne and Julia Lynch, percussionist Colin Currie, bass-baritone Michael Mofidian, harpsichordist John Butt and tenor Thomas Walker.

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Artists will be taking to the stage over three dates (17, 24 and 36 June) to perform to an empty auditorium, in concerts which will be livestreamed to audiences at home.

The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra performs with a reduced line-up, joined by violinist Pekka Kuusisto on 17 June. The orchestra will then be joined by pianist Igor Levit on 26 June. All further details can be found on our livestream calendar here.

Kings Place, London

The Kings Cross venue is opening its doors on Sunday 21 June for an audience-free performance by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which will be broadcast on the Kings Place KPlayer.

To view other upcoming live performances from Kings Place, visit our livestream calendar.

The Kings Cross venue are hosting a free Culture Clinic on Saturday 1 August, in which guests can attend one-to-one live performances from a series of guest artists, including jazz pianist Elliot Galvin, folk guitarist Ewan McLennan, violin and piano duo Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, as well as a group of performance poets.

Audience members will share their personal lockdown story or current mood with the artists who will prescribe them a piece of music. These short consultations will bring audiences together with social distancing. Availability is limited to 8-10 slots, available on a first-come first -served basis. Tickets are free but donations are welcome. Families and members of the same household/bubble can come under one single booking, with up to six people.

Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov: live from Sychrov Castle

At 7pm BST, the Czech Philharmonic will perform at Sychrov Castle just outside Prague to an audience of 500, in a concert that will be livestreamed on the Czech Philharmonic's Facebook page.

The audience members will set just 20cm apart and will not have to wear face masks.

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra: Music in the Summer Air Festival

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's Music in the Summer Air Festival will take place from 20-29 July and includes 17 events taking place both inside the Shanghai Symphony Hall and outside on the 'Urban Music Lawn'.

Because of the restrictions on immigration, the festival will feature only China-based artists, and the audiences will be limited to a 30% capacity. Several of the concerts will be performed twice each evening so a larger number of audience members can attend.

Cadogan Hall, London

Following in the footsteps of other venues such as Wigmore Hall, London's Cadogan Hall has announced that it will reopen following the UK lockdown for a series of live-streamed concerts and recording sessions.

Scheduled events and concerts include a live-streamed concert by the English Chamber Orchestra and 'TURN UP!', a charity performance featuring stars from Black West End and Broadway, responding to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The English Chamber Orchestra will also record an upcoming album from the Cadogan Hall before its concert on 8 July. The orchestra will be joined by violinists Stephanie Gonley, who will direct a performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 9, and Ofer Falk, who will perform the solo in Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending. The performance will be broadcast on Cadogan Hall's YouTube channel at 7.30pm.

'TURN UP!' will feature live band performances, readings, poetry and speeches, and will be livestreamed on 10, 11 and 12 July, with the final broadcast captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

All performers will comply with social distancing guidelines.

Bravo! Vail Summer Festival

Bravo! Vail Festival in Colorado has announced it will be hosting its 2020 season between 16 July and 6 August with a series of outdoor (and virtual) concerts. The capacity for each concert will be extremely limited.

This list will be regularly updated. If there are any we have missed, please contact freya.parr@immediate.co.uk.

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