Despite Covid Hurdles, US Orchestras Find the Joy in Music

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda leads the National Symphony Orchestra in a rehearsal at the Kennedy Center in Washington -- the ensemble is back on stage performing, despite the hurdles associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Stefani Reynolds AFP

At the start of 2020, the National Symphony Orchestra was planning its first international tour with conductor Gianandrea Noseda, and an epic Beethoven cycle to mark the 250th anniversary of the legendary composer's birth.

Instead, the coronavirus pandemic forced the ensemble out of the Kennedy Center in the US capital for 18 months, and the Beethoven symphonic series has been rescheduled, starting this month and wrapping up in... 2023, AFP said.