HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — For the first time in almost 100 years, the Hollywood Bowl closed and canceled its concert season in 2020 due to the pandemic. Now, the music is back, and the Bowl’s Nora Brady said the excitement is palpable.
“We just went on sale with July 3rd and 4th, and that's doing well, and we have subscribers renewing their subscriptions,” Brady said. “Everybody is really excited to get back.”
The closure of the iconic LA music venue was a huge blow, not only for the performing arts community and the Bowl staff, but also for audiences for whom going to the Hollywood Bowl is synonymous with summertime — a yearly tradition of picnics, family and friends, and world class music under the stars.
Brady grew up going to the bowl herself and has plenty of fond memories.
“I saw Alanis Morissette live here when I was younger and she's coming back in the fall. So, that's going to be exciting!” Brady said. “But, also, just the orchestra. I remember seeing the orchestra when I couldn't put my feet on the floor.”
The Hollywood Bowl, of course, is the summertime home to the LA Phil.
Although the Hollywood Bowl will open to the general public in July, to kick things off, they are hosting a series of concerts for essential and front-line workers as a thank you for their continued heroic work.
Travis Bradley is an ICU nurse practitioner who went to the first of these special concerts. He said the Bowl’s return is really a spirit-lifter.
“Last year has been incredible—incredibly difficult, incredibly challenging and incredibly emotional,” Bradley said.
A Bowl regular, Bradley said it is all about friends, family, good food and of course enjoying all kinds of music.
“I think that's one of the reasons I love the Hollywood Bowl so much, it's so diverse,” he said. “I like going for classical nights with the LA Phil, and then some of the rock concert nights. I'm so excited just to be back at the Bowl and to picnic and to see friends. Music is fantastic by yourself, but when you're seeing it with a shared group of people who are all appreciating it at the same time, it just heightens the experience.”
The LA Phil orchestra itself, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, offers an apt metaphor for the kind of co-operation and teamwork it takes to battle a pandemic.
“It's a team effort,” Bradley said. “It's everybody. It's the doctors, it's the nurses, it's the people who clean the rooms afterward, and it's really gratifying to see that the public is recognizing that now.”
The Hollywood Bowl will reopen to the general public July 3 with their fireworks extravaganza, but Brady says these first concerts are their way of saying thanks.
“It made perfect sense for the first concerts that we'd have would be for the people that made it possible for us to be open, which are essential workers and front-line workers,” Brady said. “They are really the reason why we're here and why we're open. It's our way of being able to give back to them.”
And after more than a year without any live music at all, the healing power of music is most welcome.
“Music is our gift and so that's our way of saying thank you to them and for their sacrifice and their generosity,” Brady said.
While safety protocols remain in place and seating capacity will be capped at 67%, that's still thousands of people who will be able to enjoy the sweet sounds of live music once again starting July 3.