City Of Fort Worth: Symphony Reprises Performances At Historic Will Rogers Auditorium

Press release from City of Fort Worth:

August 27, 2021

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) may have taken a half-measure rest for a few months in 2020 but, thanks to the city’s renowned can-do spirit, the music played on at its home away from home: Will Rogers Auditorium.

Keith Cerny, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since January 2019, began monitoring the COVID-19 virus in early 2020. Like many businesses, the FWSO had scheduled March 16 as trial remote working for office staff. While having morning coffee with a colleague on March 13, Cerny learned numerous public venues, including downtown’s Bass Performance Hall, had closed.

“We canceled performances for the rest of the season,” Cerny said, “and by early summer we had to cancel the very popular Concerts in the Garden. But working with our board of directors, we made the decision to resume with safety and distancing so we could sell tickets and perform to smaller audiences. So we developed a plan to resume live performances starting in the fall of 2020.”

The FWSO obtained vendors for drive-thru COVID-19 testing to test musicians, stage crew and guest artists. (At the time, testing sites were scarce.) But with Bass Hall closed and audience capacities limited to 25%, the FWSO needed a venue that would accommodate a certain amount of socially distanced, ticketed audience members to make a performance economically feasible.

“I was new to Fort Worth and didn’t know much about the Will Rogers Auditorium, except that it had been the home of the Symphony before the Bass Hall opened,” Cerny said. “But when I learned that they had 2,856 seats as opposed to Bass Hall’s 2,056, we approached Will Rogers. There, we could accommodate 806 socially distanced patrons,” so that was the ticket.

Kevin Kemp, general manager of Will Rogers Memorial Center, was elated to have the opportunity to host the FWSO again. 

“We were very excited and honored for the opportunity to help the FWSO continue to perform this season,” said Kemp, as the pandemic had forced cancellations of concerts and dance competitions ordinarily held in the Auditorium.

The FWSO asked WRMC to build a stage extension designed by an outside consultant to accommodate up to 45 socially distanced musicians. They also worked closely with the WRMC team to build customized front-of-house processes such as ticket sales, ushers and the box office function. Parking is plentiful at Will Rogers, but can be far-flung, so golf carts were used to bring patrons from distant lots.

With the changes to the historic venue, Cerny said musicians and patrons are pleased with sound and comfort at WRMC. Audiences have numbered up to approximately 450 for performances.

“We have two kinds of shows: amplified (pop) and acoustic (symphonic),” he said. “The reverberation time doesn’t sound fully like a symphonic hall, but the sound carries well throughout the theatre.  On the whole, patrons are very positive about being back in live performances, easy access to parking and being in the Cultural District.”

The FWSO gave its first pandemic performance with its pops series guest Asleep at the Wheel on Sept. 11, 2020, and have been performing for nearly 10 months.

“Relatively few orchestras in the U.S. have been able to do that, and we have been able to keep our musicians and staff on full pay,” Cerny said.

Cerny noted that an important point for the FWSO’s strategy is expanding their artistic vision, and have hired Robert Spano as music director designate.  Part of that vision is expanding the Symphonic series in Bass Hall from 10 to 12 weekends each season. Because the FWSO shares Bass Hall with many other entities, Cerny said plans are to continue special performances and pops series concerts at Will Rogers Auditorium going forward. 

“A special part of the past 16 months for me was this community’s positive attitude toward a challenge. Faced with a difficult public health situation, we came together to do the right thing to partner and perform and make it all work.”

Photo: The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra will continue to book special performances and pops series concerts at Will Rogers Auditorium.

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This press release was produced by City of Fort Worth. The views expressed here are the author’s own.