BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
The Melbourne Digital Concert Hall takes its name from the medium. It live streams performances of Australian classical musicians, so you can watch a digital show from home during COVID-19.
Because of this initiative, the experience of the concert hall remains an accessible one — and that’s a rare thing when there are restrictions in place to prevent you from dressing up, grabbing your mates, and making your way to the venue (or any venue that isn’t your own house).
While the musicians of MDCH are providing you with the sounds, we must also consider the unsung heroes that provide the stage on which they perform. As a consequence, they are also literally providing a platform for these musicians to earn income during lockdown — to the effect of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Greg Hocking runs Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre — the concert hall you enter whenever you tune in to an MDCH stream.
Running the venue is a responsibility he’s shouldered since 1986, though he had not yet done so through a pandemic. Considering it’s his first time facing one, the progression of the Athenaeum in the past few months of COVID-19 — from shows scheduled, to shows cancelled, to providing a lifeline to local musicians — has been nothing short of inspiring to witness.
In this interview, Greg tells us how the Athenaeum literally became the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall. Having held posts at major arts institutions in the past (founding Universal Theatre, and co-founding the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Melbourne Opera), Greg isn’t one to shy away from a challenge — even if it’s a challenge that tries to shut the whole world down.
Greg, I’d first like to congratulate you for your huge success as part of the MDCH. But first, let’s go back a bit earlier. When COVID-19 lockdowns were first announced, how were you feeling and what were your worries?
When the lockdown was announced, we were of course very worried as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival was just about to start. We had literally hundreds of local and international performances booked into the Athenaeum, as it’s one of the main and most popular venues.
I was also well down the track in planning Melbourne Opera’s August season of Das Rheingold at The Regent with a lot of distinguished local and international artists.
With this in mind, how many events at your venue did you need to cancel or postpone, and for how many months into the future?
So, we have cancelled literally hundreds of shows at the Athenaeum and several interstate tours.
Currently, aside from MDCH, we are not looking at bookings until at least September, and I think realistically November.
MDCH was launched almost at the beginning of the lockdowns. How did you come to be the “concert hall” of its namesake?
MDCH co-founder Chris Howlett, who I have known for a few years, rang me on a Sunday after lockdown regarding MDCH. And my business partners and I immediately jumped at the opportunity to assist and sponsor the classical music industry in this innovative way.
I think MDCH started the following weekend — amazing work by the artistic team of Chris and co-founder Adele Schonhardt. The broadcast quality, led by Tim Kelly at 5stream, is world class and most gratifying.
That the heavily subsidised cultural juggernauts have not got this together speaks volumes of their actual commitment to the arts when the chips are down. What are all those well-paid administrators doing?
It must have felt like a bold move to shift from physical patrons to digital ones! What was going through your mind at the first live streamed performance?
I have been a subscriber to the Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall since it started so am a bit of a fan of live streaming. I think it’s true to say that none of us knew how it would go in the Victorian context — needless to say we have been really thrilled by the response of the musicians and the public.
MDCH has opened up some new opportunities for combining live performance and audiences with streaming in the future — at Melbourne Opera, we will definitely be looking into this for future seasons.
It seems to me that MDCH has fit somewhat organically into the Australian classical music scene: it may have felt like something different or novelty at the start, but now it’s where we just go, when it comes to engaging in live classical music. What has this initiative done for your venue?
The Ath is the oldest mainland theatre, opened in 1839, so it’s great to be at the forefront of another innovation.
Over the years, the Ath has been instrumental in the launching of many Melbourne cultural enterprises including the Comedy Festival, the Writers Festival, and Melbourne Opera; I have a feeling MDCH is now another!
Certainly, it has helped us all feel there is some light at the end of the tunnel. And all my staff, who we managed to keep on JobKeeper, have enthusiastically got behind the project.
On a practical level, how do you prepare your venue for COVID-19 safety and hygiene?
Lots of hand sanitiser, alcohol-based rubdowns of instruments, and strict social distancing have been the key. It’s not that hard. At the moment, the theatre is still locked so people enter via Athenaeum Lane at the rear, but we look forward to small live audiences at the end of June as another step towards normalcy.
Having an audience in the room will remove the slight ‘strangeness’ of excellent performances being received in silence!
Yes, in June you’re opening your doors to a socially distanced MDCH experience with up to 35 patrons per event. Interestingly, you’ll still be streaming the concerts! How will this all work?
Tickets are selling fast for our small audiences from the end of June. We are confident we can manage these numbers safely given our overall capacity of 860: [there will be 35 audience members allowed per event] at the outset, rising — we hope — to more than 50 at the next stage.
Combined with live streaming, this gives the artists a bit more money as well as helping us with overheads, all of which have been donated so far.
I think this will be a model for the future, as there will be a cohort of audience members who will not feel comfortable going out for some time but can still join a live experience.
There was recently announced a study that showed 9 in 10 arts audiences are keen to get back into live music. What does this figure mean to you and the Athenaeum?
I hope that survey is right — personally, I think younger audiences will jump back in ASAP but older people will take their time.
Certainly, MDCH will be showing the way and the initial response to audience attendance is very encouraging. Eventually, the cultural juggernauts will get their act together…
On a general level, do you think we’ll be okay, as an industry?
As an industry, it has been very dispiriting to watch the subsidised sector drop the ball so comprehensively. I have no idea what the hundreds of administrators are doing — certainly, there has been nothing as directly helpful and innovative as MDCH anywhere else in the sector. Running a few archival videos is not actually assisting in the here and now.
This should be borne in mind in the future: the subsidised sector needs a root and branch overhaul, as admin has taken over and grabbed the lion’s share of funding. With the exception of an Australia Council Resilience grant after the event was up and running, and generous Musica Viva in-kind support, MDCH is not funded and neither is the Ath or Melbourne Opera. And yet we — and our colleagues in the commercial concert sector — will be the first cabs off the rank. The admin tail is wagging the dog at the moment, and this must change in the future, as I’m sure the subsidy won’t increase.
The subsidised sector seems to have lost sight of the point of artistic enterprise: enabling art to happen, not meetings!
Before we next watch your venue helping to make the art happen, do you have any final words for our readers?
I’ve got to say that MDCH has been a complete pleasure to be involved with. My partners and I feel lucky to have been able to help such a professional team and such a very large number of Australia’s best musicians get through this mess. And to keep audiences engaged.
We look forward to the next exciting phase as I think MDCH will grow and prosper.
You can next experience the Athenaeum Theatre — as the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall stage — during the Michael Aquilina Chamber Music Festival from 30-31 May.
Disclaimer: Greg Hocking’s views are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall or CutCommon.
Images supplied. MDCH captured by Albert Comper.
CutCommon is proud to be an official Melbourne Digital Concert Hall media partner.
