CASE STUDY
VIRTUAL CONCERTS
Young@Heart Chorus
Total Shutdown, Complete Reinvention
Challenge
March 2020. A touring chorus of seniors aged 75-93—among the highest COVID risk groups—suddenly could not perform, rehearse, or tour. Zero revenue. Organizational survival at stake.
How do you transform an organization built on live performances into a sustainable digital operation within months? How do you maintain community connection when elderly performers face extreme isolation? And critically—how do you generate revenue when touring is impossible?
Most arts organizations shuttered during the pandemic—many permanently. Young@Heart needed immediate transformation.
Solutions
When lockdown began, most arts organizations scrambled to establish digital presence from nothing. Young@Heart pivoted immediately because I had spent nine years building the foundation that made transformation possible.
Starting in 2011 with zero social media presence, I grew Young@Heart's Facebook and YouTube to 44,000+ combined followers and 8M views—creating distribution infrastructure that enabled immediate pandemic response. In 2017, I redesigned their website, replacing an outdated platform with modern digital framework that boosted fan engagement and subscriber acquisition when national attention arrived.
This wasn't luck. This was infrastructure compounding over time.
The digital foundation was only part of the story. Over 14 years as lead contract negotiator, I booked and advanced 132 concerts and 35 tours worldwide—including negotiating the $200,000 E*Trade Super Bowl commercial with MullenLowe. With the team, I co-produced 24 in-person fundraising concerts at Northampton's Academy of Music Theatre, generating $800,000 in ticket sales, sponsorships, ads, merchandise, and donations. I led four crowdfunding campaigns that raised $150,000. When touring stopped, this operational experience meant I understood both what we'd lost and how to rebuild revenue generation from scratch.
Within weeks of shutdown, Executive Director Bob Cilman began gathering the chorus on Zoom to maintain community connection during indefinite rehearsal suspension. I recommended live-streaming these sessions to engage our worldwide fanbase. Fans tuned in to watch the chorus work through songs in real-time—creating unexpected intimacy and proving audience appetite for online engagement.
Working alongside Bob, Creative Director Julia van IJken, and Development Director Ariel Glassman Barwick, I identified what other organizations missed: most of Young@Heart's worldwide audience from their 2007 Fox Searchlight documentary had never seen the chorus live. Lockdown created unprecedented availability.
Drawing on years as recording artist and executive producer, I proposed a live album which we developed into a full-scale virtual concert release party—artistically compelling and financially sustainable. Most organizations focused on loss. We recognized opportunity: turn crisis into global distribution moment.
I oversaw mixing, mastering, and album logistics—streaming distribution, mechanical licensing, limited edition CD manufacturing. The "Miss You" Virtual Concert Premiere (October 3, 2020) returned Young@Heart to the global stage for the first time since 2007, driving thousands of new followers, significant fundraising, and establishing an integrated album-release model.
Working with Technical Director John Laprade and Northampton Open Media, we built integrated streaming infrastructure blending live performance with pre-produced content and real-time donation appeals—creating seamless viewer experience that drove giving.
Post-concert Zoom "meet and greets" let donors join performers in real-time conversation. Drawing on Kickstarter experience, I co-developed tiered donor benefits. The strategic insight: during extreme isolation, fans could connect with beloved elderly performers moments after being deeply moved. The timing wasn't coincidental—emotional peak drives giving.
We co-authored a diversified revenue model combining sponsorships, advertising, strategic donation asks, tiered incentives, merchandise sales, and free-to-view content—integrating fundraising directly into shows in ways unprecedented for Young@Heart.
We made a counterintuitive choice: free access for all concerts. Facebook and YouTube don't allow paywalls for live-streaming, but this limitation became our advantage—it built goodwill, amplified reach, and drove major donations. Charging even $10 would have capped giving; trust-based access inspired gifts far beyond any paywall, some exceeding $1,000.
When Bob sought national visibility, I recommended professional PR services, which helped secure 8 celebrity guests—including Paul Shaffer, Steve Buscemi, Los Lobos, Jim James, Edie Falco, Larry David, and David Byrne—and generate major coverage from CNN Champions for Change, CBS Sunday Morning, WGBH, NBC10 Philadelphia, Fox2 Detroit, and the Boston Globe, among others.
Results
When lockdown hit, most arts organizations went dark—many permanently. Young@Heart didn't just survive. The organization thrived.
Together, we generated over $300,000 through virtual concerts when touring was impossible and survival uncertain. Nine virtual concerts produced between 2020 and 2024 proved this wasn't crisis response—it was permanent transformation. The virtual concert format remains part of Young@Heart's programming.
Beyond financial sustainability, the initiative delivered profound human impact. It kept all 50 organization members—especially 25 elderly singers in the highest COVID risk group—engaged, inspired, and creative during isolation. And it gave audiences worldwide something uplifting when they desperately needed it: joy, connection, and hope delivered by beloved performers in their most vulnerable moment.
The strategic lesson: crisis reveals whether you've built real infrastructure or good intentions. Zero to 44,000 followers over nine years. No social media presence to essential distribution platform. This wasn't reactive crisis management—it was strategic preparation meeting opportunity.
This is strategy that flows.
Impact
$300K+
Raised through virtual concerts with touring suspended
132 & 35
Concerts booked and tours advanced worldwide over 14 years
$800K
Generated through 24 fundraising concerts at Academy of Music
44K+
Social media followers and 8M views built from zero over 9 years
9
Virtual concerts over 5 years proving permanent model
50
Members kept engaged, inspired, and creative during isolation
“Young@Heart experienced an existential crisis during the pandemic—our main revenue source disappeared overnight. Mark was instrumental in our virtual concert pivot, bringing technical skills, creativity, and utter resourcefulness. He was an essential ingredient in Young@Heart's organizational survival at the most difficult moment any nonprofit could encounter.”
— Ariel Glassman Barwick, Founder & CEO, Common Great