Marquee TV, the performing arts streaming service, has announced the lineup for its second annual Summer Shorts Festival, which will be free to watch online during August.

Scottish Ballet dancers in Sophie Laplane’s Dive. Image © Andy Ross.

Celebrating the post-COVID return of many arts organisations in the northern hemisphere summer, Summer Shorts features a mix of works by major international organisations and other smaller independent ones, including the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, LA Opera, and The Washington Ballet.

Video has been a vital part of arts organisations’ responses to COVID. The broadcasting of traditional concerts through organisations like Melbourne Digital Concert Hall has been a vital way for performers to stay connected to their audiences, but other, better-resourced organisations have embraced video as a new artform with which to express their creativity. Pinchgut Opera and the Australian Chamber Orchestra have been at the forefront of this new approach in Australia, and this Summer Shorts festival will provide Australian audiences with the opportunity to see how some of Europe and North America’s major organisations have responded to the changing world.