Here in Seattle — and everywhere else — live arts events have been put on pause. But, as many organizations and individuals move online for the time being, we can still immerse ourselves in the arts, from rebroadcasts to livestreams, podcasts to social media. Here’s just a tiny sampling. Note that many online presentations — especially livestreams — are offered with little notice, so it never hurts to check in with your favorite artist or arts organization online and see what they have to offer.
Classical Music
Seattle Symphony is rebroadcasting concerts on Thursday and Saturday evenings; it’s also adding a matinee rebroadcast on Sunday, March 29. In addition, the Symphony is brightening our days with Morning Notes, featuring individual musicians from the orchestra soloing on their instruments. And there’s the kid-friendly Meet the Tuba at 11 a.m. Friday, March 27. See seattlesymphony.org/watch-listen/live for details. Performances are streamed on Seattle Symphony’s YouTube (youtube.com/user/SeattleSymphony) and Facebook (facebook.com/seattlesymphony) pages.
Seattle Opera offers a variety of podcasts on its website, led by company dramaturge Jonathan Dean. Recent installments discuss “La Boheme,” “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird,” “Eugene Onegin” and the genre “opera seria.” seattleopera.org/inside-look/podcasts
The Metropolitan Opera is offering free streaming of encore presentations from the company’s Live in HD series, with a new opera offered every day for 23 hours (beginning at 4:30 p.m. PDT). Upcoming works include Wagner operas all weekend, followed by “Nixon in China,” “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and “Macbeth” the week of March 30. metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams
One of our favorite things this week: The renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been posting short videos of himself playing short solos that are meaningful to him (Dvorak’s “Coming Home”; Saint-Saens’ “The Swan”), labeling them as #SongsofComfort. Find them on his Instagram (@yoyoma) or Twitter (@YoYo_Ma), or on YouTube (youtube.com/user/YoYoMaVideos). Other musicians have joined the hashtag, offering their own musical solace.
The Berlin Philharmonic is offering free access to their Digital Concert Hall for 30 days, with the code BERLINPHIL; see digitalconcerthall.com/en/live for details.
Pop/Rock/Jazz Music
Town Hall’s Arts and Culture series is presenting an Earshot Jazz livestream, featuring the Alex Dugdale Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28. Information: townhallseattle.org/event/livestream-only-earshot-jazz-alex-dugdale-quartet. (Town Hall is also presenting other livestreamed events; check listings at townhallseattle.org/live/)
Local musicians can be seen on The Quarantine Sessions on Facebook (as of this writing, new concerts are on Sunday nights at 7 p.m.: facebook.com/quarantinesessionsofficial) and on LiveConcerts.stream.
Pacific Place is hosting virtual happy hour featuring local artists each weekday at 5 p.m. on its Facebook (facebook.com/PacificPlaceSeattle) and Instagram (@pacific_place) pages.
On Saturday, March 28, Nectar Lounge has its second show in a virtual concert series. This one features the band Swindler, and is pay what you will. facebook.com/NectarLounge
KEXP has a list of local and national virtual concerts at kexp.org/events.
Artist Home has a list of local virtual concerts at artisthome.org/virtual-concert-calendar.
As of this writing, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard is streaming daily at 4 p.m. through DCFC’s Facebook (facebook.com/deathcabforcutie) and YouTube (youtube.com/user/DCFCtv) pages.
Theater
On social media: If you want to have your heart warmed by hearing theater kids sing their hard-rehearsed songs, check out the hashtag #SunshineSongs on Twitter and Instagram. (It’s the brainchild of Broadway star Laura Benanti, who wanted to encourage students whose high school musical performances have been canceled.)
@theatrewithouttheater, on Instagram, offers new videos daily from professional productions that have been halted — including an excerpt from “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
“Stars in the House,” a fundraiser for The Actor’s Fund (a nonprofit that supports performing arts professionals, many of whom have lost their jobs in recent weeks), is offering two livestreams a day featuring — as the title would indicate — Broadway stars performing from their homes. Among the recent and upcoming guests: Audra McDonald, Chita Rivera, Tina Fey, John Lithgow and many more. Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/user/actorsfundorg
Mixed Performing Arts
OntheBoards.tv is a fantastic, inexpensive resource: an archive of performances by avant-garde artist troupes filmed during their past runs at Seattle’s invaluable On the Boards. Through the end of April, it’s free to stream, using the code ARTATHOME20 at checkout. You can take in such bold, experimental productions as Temporary Distortion’s multimedia “Newyorkland,” a powerful look at cops and society; and Poland’s Stefan Zeromski Theatre’s audience-confronting “In the Solitude of Cotton Fields.” Details at ontheboards.org.
Northwest Film Forum has a full slate of online activities that lets the ambitious organization keep doing what it’s so good at doing. Currently, you can buy a ticket to stream Brazilian thriller “Bacurau,” starring Sonia Braga, as well as engage with various classes, a program honoring historic local African American leaders, and more. nwfilmforum.org
The long-running PBS series “Great Performances” has a huge back catalog of outstanding live performances from various disciplines, including Broadway plays (“Red,” “Present Laughter”), symphony performances, opera from The Met, pop and jazz concerts (k.d. lang, Tony Bennett), dance and more. You can have it all for a $5 a month KCTS 9 Passport subscription (cancel anytime). Click any episode link on the “Great Performances” site to access the Passport sign-up. Info: pbs.org/show/great-performances
Kanopy, a national online resource requiring only a library card to enroll for free, is deservedly known as a fount of new and old arthouse cinema. But it is also a bottomless well of theater, dance, opera, concerts, hip-hop and adult education in scores of subjects, all captured on film. Want to see Monty Python’s John Cleese as an unexpectedly superb Petruchio in the BBC’s 1980 “Taming of the Shrew”? It’s here: spl.kanopy.com.
Books
Science-fiction and fantasy author N.K. Jemison will be “in town” for a virtual event at 7:30 p.m. April 1. Tickets are $35, which includes a shipped copy of her latest book, “The City We Became.” Like traditional author events, the evening will include a reading and an audience Q&A. Information: strangertickets.com/events/104193727/n-k-jemisin
Seattle Arts and Lectures offers free access to SAL/on air, archived podcasts of talks by guest authors going back 30 years to the organization’s earliest days. You can hear Isabel Allende’s appearances from 1989 as well as from 2017; listen to a reading by the late Philip Roth from 1992; hear a great 2011 address by nature writer Wendell Berry; as well as conversations with Barbara Kingsolver, Tom Hanks, Madeleine Albright and Ta-Nehisi Coates. lectures.org/community/podcast
Seattle Public Library has a wealth of online resources (spl.org/online-resources), including e-books (spl.org/books-and-media/books-and-ebooks). So does King County Library System, with its online resources (kcls.org/resource) and e-books (kcls.org/resources-types/ebooks-format).
The New York Public Library has a large cache of e-books and audiobooks called the SimplyE Collection, and it’s open to anyone anywhere for online borrowing; you don’t need an NYPL card to use it. Genre fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction and non-English language books are on hand, and can help you find something to read while demand is high right now for virtual titles from our own regional library systems. Just download the SimplyE app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Info: nypl.org/books-music-movies/ebookcentral/simplye
Seattle Times arts critic Moira Macdonald and freelancer Tom Keogh contributed to this list.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.