Digital presentation of the Belgrade Philharmonic in the period of concert bans

Abstract

The paper focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic impact on performing arts, notably the emergence of new presentation forms devised while concert activities were suspended, referring to the example of philharmonic orchestras. Owing to totalizing digitalization, which has shifted the entire production and reception of the performing and listening experience to the online sphere, the role of the audience also undergoes a shift from a collective to a virtual entity. The text, firstly, maps the emerging practices and explores their impact on changing the very sensory perception of new media content consumed in virtual reality. The focus of the paper is on redefinition of the PR department from communications towards the roll of the curator of the online presentations and the digital content and overall activities of the orchestra. The case study examines the example of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra by analysing its digital presentation and communication strategy between March and June 2020. The goal is to identify the contributions of new practices, whose combination with the traditional ones could result in long-term audience and public relations development and enhancement of musical performance presentation. By continuously producing new contents for different target groups, without a single concert held in this period, the Philharmonic successfully attracted new audience and turned a crisis into an opportunity for interaction with new users, thus generating growth on all platforms. The conclusion provides a predictive analysis of return to normality, after the digital transgression experiences. It is recognized that music institutions will strategically develop their digital concert halls as new entrepreneurial models. As competition in this sphere brings PR departments to the fore owing to the need to work with complex algorithms, the digital ethical dilemma will intensify as a burning issue in the context of demographic data collection.