Dear RNZ Concert audience, this is a quick note to keep you up-to-date with how the RNZ Concert team is managing the challenges of Covid and how it affects you as listeners.
RNZ Concert Desk / Operating Console Photo: Clarissa Dunn
RNZ Concert during Omicron
Like every aspect of life at this time the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged and changed the way we work here at RNZ Concert. Our top priorities are keeping our people safe while maintaining our programming as close as possible to the usual service you know and love. We appreciate how important RNZ Concert is to you, especially in challenging times, and we will be here for you.
To achieve these aims, we are working differently. This includes increasing our ability to have staff work from home, changing the parts of the day our presenters host from time to time to ensure we can give people time off when they need it, and reducing some aspects of our work to focus on keeping our music broadcast strong.
One example of this is the absence of Upbeat, our daily radio programme of interviews with music makers and other artists. Currently we are not able to deliver this programme because of operational limitations mentioned above. Also, with so many performances being postponed due to the pandemic, it will be important for us to share these stories at the time the performers and audiences will gain the most benefit. For now, we are offering interesting and important arts stories to our colleagues at RNZ National to cover. Standing Room Only is a good starting place to keep up to date with these. You can also find music-related stories from across all of RNZ on the RNZ Music page here.
Live Music
We are working closely with our performance partners including New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Chamber Music NZ, Arts Festivals and other organisations as they work through what music making might be possible over the coming weeks.
RNZ Concert will continue to support the music community by undertaking new music recordings for you where it is safe for our staff and the performers.
Meanwhile we continue to offer shared music experiences to you, for example in Music Alive each evening, and though the occasional video stream via the RNZ Concert Facebook page.
Coming up: We will premiere a new work by Gareth Farr, librettist Paul Horan (NZ/AUS), and baritone Julien Van Mellaerts (NZ/UK). Where Will They Bury My Bones? will be broadcast on RNZ Concert at 9:30pm on Saturday 19 March, with video via the Auckland Arts Festival.
You can watch or listen to RED!, Lucy Mulgan's new take on Little Red Riding Hood here, and there are new live broadcast and video performances coming from the APO, NZ Festival of the Arts, and the NZSO.
We will continue to balance looking after our team and offering you the best service possible as we all work through omicron and beyond.
Wishing you good health and happy listening,
The RNZ Concert team.
