Well hell.

[mundungus42]

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

Comments

[gelsey]

I'm so sorry. I have a feeling were going to have a similar ultimatum for band, and if we don't I might have to woman up and make the smart decision for my family. It makes me sad because not only do I enjoy playing with the group, but it's my one real social outlet. So yeah. Online book club it is.

[mundungus42]

I so hear you on the social outlet. Seeing 2-3 different groups of people whose company I love in any given week/month is a joy. I am only now grasping how much mental benefit it confers. I'm so glad you have online book club, and I'm glad I have choir Zoom check-ins and ProChoir Zoom Yoga.

[zigadenus]

:( Sorry to hear this news, for all it was expected it's still hard to process. Let's vidcall and discuss McGuffin Microbe some evening, I might have some ideas if I understand some of the other plotlines.

[mundungus42]

*hugs* Thank you. I know that from the perspective of those fighting the virus on the front lines, this may seem like small potatoes. But I'm in a zoom call filled with conductors, artistic directors, composers, music teachers, sound engineers, opera hackers, and pro singers, and we're all grieving of course the financial ramifications, as well as the fact that this work nourishes our souls, and how we want to keep it going as well as we can.

Yes please. I had to disable Skype (again) because it was screwing with my computer, but it's easy enough to activate it again or we can Zoom (I have ALL THE ZOOM). I'm thinking the solution may be a detour to the planet from whence the microbe came. Make way more sense than freaking sage. *giggles*

[too_dle_oo]

Massive hugs to you, friend

[mundungus42]

Yeah, massive churches are in a good position to potentially make live music happen again safely, but one of the things the webinar emphasized that it really should be as few people as can cover all the parts, and they should be as spread far apart as humanly possible. We just make too many aerosols to be anywhere near one another. However, our diocese has only just agreed to let clergy back into their churches in small numbers to conduct remote services (no laity yet), so that's another level of approval to make the argument for

[too_dle_oo]

No, I can't blame public health aspects for advocating for this, either. I think that's the worst part: I know they're right about taking these steps to protect the most vulnerable. In a world with so many unknowns, the best action is isolation and minimizing exposure and spread. Until we can get our act together on antibody testing, which... who knows how long that'll be?

Sighs.

I'm very, very lucky in that my downstairs neighbor is a musician, too, so we hold singalongs together through the week, and I've been teaching her the major and minor blues scales so we can jam together via my balcony (she's on her front porch, just below me, or on the lawn in front

[mundungus42]

*hugs* I'm glad you have a fellow musician nearby! I do have some singer friends who live in my condo complex, but we've been very loath to gather, and will likely be moreso for obvious reasons.

I'm pretty happy self-isolating in San Diego, TBH. Though it would be perhaps a bit nicer to self-isolate in a house with a fenced-in yard for the dogs in a neighborhood with wide, quiet streets and sidewalks that's walking distance from scenic places. Also with air conditioning (it's rather summery today). But where I am now is quite close to grocery stores and restaurants, so that's a really nice benefit. That may be a failure of imagination on my part, but eh, anxiety eats imagination, so the failure is perhaps not surprising.

Oh man, I am gonna cry so hard the next time I get to sing in person with people. <3 That tends to be how it is for me and music. I can get by reasonably well without it, but oh man, I'm so much happier doing it regularly.

[thymidinekinase]

I'm so sorry, m'love. Music performance has been part of your life as long as I've known you, and I hate it that this horrid virus has taken it from you. I can list off silver linings, too, if you want? But I worry it would just make it sound like I'm minimizing the seriousness of this blow.

[mundungus42]

Oh no, I'm definitely in the silver linings camp! Here's the thing... the imposter syndrome that's whispered in my ear for pretty much my entire singing career has actually been a bit of a boon in these times. Because if there's a part of you that insists you don't have a right to be in any given room, it can help you feel stuipdly grateful for every time that you are, and it helps you to see making music for the privilege it is. And while I'm sad, "It could be so much worse" isn't far from my mind.

My biggest concerns really aren't for myself at all. It's for the performances orgs (choirs, orchestras, theatre companies, opera companies) I love who are suddenly without a way to generate income. Most operate on a shoestring even in the best times, and I'm worried that some may shutter and never be able to reopen.

[too_dle_oo]

I'm worried that some may shutter and never be able to reopen.
This is my biggest fear. I'm hoping this spurs innovation and regrowth, but I'm worried that we'll lose a lot in the process.

[mundungus42]

To be fair, people have been talking about the death of classical music for centuries, so I suspect the institution is more robust than many give it credit for. But yeah, even as I'm excited for how people are going to choose to deal with this, I also worry about what we'll lose. *hugs*

One of the folks on last night's Zoom is a well-respected sound engineer and audio producer who specializes in live recordings, and he recently produced a "virtual choir" video that was beautiful, but he was so glum about it. His skills are hugely in demand right now, but stitching together phone videos and making the audio from it approach listenable isn't really something that gives him pleasure, either. That was both sad to hear but also made me feel less alone.

[blueartemis07]

I think once the fear and the threat are mostly over, then it will start back up. Music is too much a part of the human soul to be killed off by this virus. Consider it a small break.

[mundungus42]

Oh, I am confident that when it's safe to start singing chorally again, we will do so. However, I'm less confident that it will be any time soon.

You see, in March, a story broke about a choir in Washington state that rehearsed on 3/12. 60 people were there. There were no known cases of coronavirus nearby. Nobody was feeling unwell. They didn't hug or shake hands, there was hand sanitizer, they spread out. They rehearsed for two hours. And 45 of those 60 singers came down with covid-19, and two of them have died. That story has had a chilling effect on choral musicians, so yesterday's webinar that described singing as an aerosol "superemitting" sort of activity explained that horror story. None of us want to be responsible for the deaths of people we sing with and people we love. Not gathering and singing together sucks, but part of being in a choir is caring for the other people involved. So we will wait. To do otherwise is unimaginable.