Well hell.
It's certainly been a day.
This afternoon, all the major American choral associations got together with a medical experts and hosted a webinar (ETA: video here) to discuss singing in the time of coronavirus. The verdict? It's not safe to do choral singing until there's a vaccine or a 95% effective treatment. This could be 1-2 years. I had a feeling something like this was coming ever since Germany's guidelines for worship services specifically banned singing, even congregational hymns. Turns out, masks and distancing won't help because singing is a "superemitting" activity. That certainly explains what happened to the poor Skagit Valley Chorale. And I feel like I dodged a bullet, considering I chose to attend a non-mandatory choir rehearsal around the same time, as did my sweet friend in the Met Opera chorus.
So that's that, y'all. I still have remote church singing through June. And then... no idea.
Having a specialized skill like choral singing is kind of like a superpower. So I'm identifying with all those plot lines where the hero loses her powers and has to get on without them.
The difference, at least, is that I'm far from alone in this. JCA is organizing a Zoom call tonight for choral types in mourning. This is good because I have a huge-ass margarita and the longer I'm sitting with this news, the sadder it's making me. It'll be nice to see so many faces and hearing so many voices that I'm missing.
At least... and this puts me dangerously close to Onion territory, but once I've processed this crappy news, I'm hopeful that having a definitive answer that no, we will not be rescheduling War Requiem for the fall, will make it possible for me to focus on other things. Like that novel I hoped to finish writing this year. I've been making progress on solving the conundrum of the McGuffin Microbe, so there is that. Still... not gonna hold my breath on that.
The only tiny silver lining I can see in this is that ProChoir recorded our album in January. Most holiday albums for any given season are recorded much later in the summer. If choral singing isn't gonna happen at all between now and the holidays, we're kind of uniquely positioned to have one of very few holiday choral albums to come out this winter. And it is a somewhat dark and meditative Advent-type selection of music. So it may be just the thing!
Right ho. Gonna go make myself anotehr stupidly large margarita and join the collective cry of despair.
Love y'all.
Mun42
This afternoon, all the major American choral associations got together with a medical experts and hosted a webinar (ETA: video here) to discuss singing in the time of coronavirus. The verdict? It's not safe to do choral singing until there's a vaccine or a 95% effective treatment. This could be 1-2 years. I had a feeling something like this was coming ever since Germany's guidelines for worship services specifically banned singing, even congregational hymns. Turns out, masks and distancing won't help because singing is a "superemitting" activity. That certainly explains what happened to the poor Skagit Valley Chorale. And I feel like I dodged a bullet, considering I chose to attend a non-mandatory choir rehearsal around the same time, as did my sweet friend in the Met Opera chorus.
So that's that, y'all. I still have remote church singing through June. And then... no idea.
Having a specialized skill like choral singing is kind of like a superpower. So I'm identifying with all those plot lines where the hero loses her powers and has to get on without them.
The difference, at least, is that I'm far from alone in this. JCA is organizing a Zoom call tonight for choral types in mourning. This is good because I have a huge-ass margarita and the longer I'm sitting with this news, the sadder it's making me. It'll be nice to see so many faces and hearing so many voices that I'm missing.
At least... and this puts me dangerously close to Onion territory, but once I've processed this crappy news, I'm hopeful that having a definitive answer that no, we will not be rescheduling War Requiem for the fall, will make it possible for me to focus on other things. Like that novel I hoped to finish writing this year. I've been making progress on solving the conundrum of the McGuffin Microbe, so there is that. Still... not gonna hold my breath on that.
The only tiny silver lining I can see in this is that ProChoir recorded our album in January. Most holiday albums for any given season are recorded much later in the summer. If choral singing isn't gonna happen at all between now and the holidays, we're kind of uniquely positioned to have one of very few holiday choral albums to come out this winter. And it is a somewhat dark and meditative Advent-type selection of music. So it may be just the thing!
Right ho. Gonna go make myself anotehr stupidly large margarita and join the collective cry of despair.
Love y'all.
Mun42