In this post

• Rehearsals and performance cancelled
• Zoom on Mondays continue
• Online collaborations

Spring concert and rehearsals cancelled

I can’t describe the sadness with which I must share this news. The Board met this past week, and we felt we had no choice but to come to this conclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken such a huge toll in human lives, and has affected all of humanity globally. And so now it is affecting WSW in this way, right here at home.

All rehearsals are now canceled through, and including, the spring concert originally scheduled for May 16. Our next scheduled rehearsal, for the July 4 performance at Caramoor, remains scheduled for Monday, June 8. Please hang on to all of your music for now, including the Maslanka parts. We’ll make further announcements about collecting old parts and distributing the new parts for Caramoor. God willing, it is my hope that we will meet to rehearse in June and perform in July.

Zoom on Monday at 7:30 pm

We’ll sponsor another Zoom Meet & Greet this coming Monday, April 20 at 7:30-8:30 pm. Our guest this week is Trish Cornett, from Temple University. I remain committed to offering these hangouts, and I hope you’ll join us to maintain your connection with the ensemble. I will continue to send unique login information each week to assure security. Look for that invitation in a separate, direct email.

Online collaboration

As anyone who is teaching online right now knows, these slick “virtual performances” that are appearing in Brady Bunch style require enormous resources of time, technology, and editing. It’s simply not easy. I received seventeen recorded submissions for our Bach Chorale project, and you can find the compiled recording below. Thank you to everyone who participated. The recording we created is in no way a finalized, polished performance. The final release is a bit ragged, but that’s something to learn from to go forward. But it does stress how important it is to keep playing, to band together, and that no virtual performance an ever take the place of actually gathering together to make music. 

Especially in light of the cancellation of our May concert, I’d like to put out another collaboration project, and encourage as many of you as possible to give it a try. It will help you keep up your chops, help keep your spirits high, and help to focus our attention forward to the point when we will rehearse and perform together again. When I have that project ready, I’ll add it to this page, under the Resources tab, and send out a post with instructions. The flute section has already formed their own online collaboration group, so I hope we can harness that energy and interest for everyone. 

I hope to see you Monday evening on Zoom!