For the first time in almost a century, the Hollywood Bowl is canceling its entire season, forced to make the heartbreaking decision as the coronavirus quarantine continues to wreak havoc on the live music industry.
The iconic summer concert venue had to scrap planned concerts by Brandi Carlile, Diana Ross, Janelle Monae and Yuja Wang as well as film screenings and sing-along events. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, which manages the venue, is facing a huge financial crisis as a result of the cancellation; the organization announced Wednesday that it will have to furlough 25 percent of its non-union staff as well as the entire Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Seasonal Hollywood Bowl employees have been laid off.
“It’s a devastating blow to our organization,” the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association’s chief executive Chad Smith told the Los Angeles Times. “As much as we had tried to avoid furloughs for full-time staff up to this point, today that became impossible.”
As the Times notes, “The reality of a Hollywood Bowl gone quiet for the whole season — a silent summer — is hard to fathom when music played on during the end of one world war and throughout another, through Korea and Vietnam, though the Great Depression and the Great Recession, through 9/11 and all the floods, fires, riots and chaos in between.”
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