The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra will livestream a duet with violinists Sarah Cranor and Alejandro Gómez Guillén at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on the orchestra’s YouTube channel.
The orchestra's 50th chamber series was originally planned for Wednesday. After social distancing measures were put in place as the result of COVID-19, the organization planned to film the concert without an audience but then realized that would also not be possible because of the ongoing stay-at-home order.
As a replacement for the concert, Gómez Guillén and Cranor, husband and wife, prepared “Sonatas for Two Violins” with pieces by Prokofiev, Jean-Marie Leclair and Miklós Rózsa. Gómez Guillén, who is also the conductor and artistic director of the ensemble, said he hopes to bring back some of the intimacy live performances bring.
“I think that we’re realizing more than ever that everything we do is very much related to live music and being together,” conductor and artistic director Gómez Guillén said.
The ensemble is asking for donations from fans and viewers of the livestream. All donations made before May 15 will be matched by the orchestra’s principal clarinetist Carl Weinberg and his wife Beth Gazley, according to the ensemble’s website.
“We’re hoping to use the money to basically keep going,” executive director Donna Lafferty said.
Lafferty said the organization needs funding to pay rent and necessary employees. The majority of the ensemble’s 85 musicians are volunteers, including Lafferty, but the organization has some paid staff such as a music librarian and personal manager.
Multiple projects in Cranor and Gómez Guillén’s musical careers have been upended by the coronavirus. Gómez Guillén is typically traveling between the Fort Worth Symphony in Texas, the Sphere Ensemble in Denver and Bloomington, but is now stuck at home because their projects have been postponed or canceled. As a result, they have invested much of their time into this upcoming duet and getting ready for runs together.
The couple is attempting to train for an upcoming digital marathon in addition to their musical collaboration.
“This idea of combining discipline toward something like a marathon and also something like a concert is really wonderful,” Gómez Guillén said. “It not only makes these days more productive and tolerable, but it’s turning into this wonderful thing.”
The ensemble’s next in-person event is scheduled for Aug. 23 for the Summer Concert at Switchyard Park. The group’s founder Geoffrey Simon plans to attend the Beethoven Birthday Bash rescheduled for October.
