Vancouver Symphony Orchestra – Online & Available

(Edit: they’ve released more of their schedule! See it (and probably the same page when there are more updates) here!)

Last year, we decided that we wanted to get a little more culture in our lives.

We had heard good things about the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, but we weren’t able to go see them before.

But now we could.

We bought tickets to six different concerts spanning from November 2019 to June 2020.

Sadly, due to COVID, four of those concerts were cancelled but we really enjoyed the two concerts that we got to see before everything went to shit.

We actually bought season tickets to 10 concerts this year, but when COVID stuck around like an unwanted guest who had no intention of leaving, the season was cancelled.

But now, again due to COVID, the VSO has gone online.

At The Concert Hall, the VSO is putting a 40-performance season online and available to anybody. You don’t even have to be in Vancouver!

For $130 CDN (almost a pittance for US customers with the exchange rate right now), you can get unlimited access to these performances throughout the year, going all the way to June of next year.

You don’t even have to watch it live. You can watch the performances again and again.

The orchestra has bowed to the COVID-induced social distancing guidelines, giving plenty of space to their musicians as they work to entertain us.

So far this year there have been three performances.

The first concert of the season was a Bach and Beethoven extravaganza with violinist James Ehnes leading the Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor and then VSO conductor Otto Tausk leading the VSO in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

Last week Tausk led the Brass section of the orchestra through Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a wonderful performance. They then had a roundtable discussion of the works.

Yesterday (we haven’t watched it yet as we’re saving it to savor later this week), Ehnes returned to lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Septet and Sibelius’s Suite for Violin & Strings. I’m sure that’s going to be brilliant as well.

As new patrons of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, we were happy to spend the money to support this online endeavour as we really missed going to the concerts.

Since this is online, it is now available to people anywhere in the world and I highly recommend it.

If you like classical music, this really is a must-buy. Considering tickets to each individual concert at the Orpheum in Vancouver can cost that much just for one or two tickets, a 40-performance season for $130 is a no-brainer!

Coming up next weekend is noted jazz vocalist Dee Daniels (November 7).

The best thing about TheConcertHall is that you will have access to the performances for the entire year.

You can watch them multiple times!

Check it out and see what you think.

I post this as a proud patron of the VSO, somebody who really wishes I could see them again in person.

Maybe next year.