Several of you have asked me when the Choir might be able to perform once again. Of course, many of you probably know that choirs and COVID are a particularly dicey situation. Distancing and the forceful expelling of breath as people sing are both big challenges in a choir loft. Even so, I sent an email to the  choir members about two weeks ago, hoping to figure out a way we could sing together a little bit. Nothing big—just doing some part singing with familiar hymns and trying to shake the rust out of our voices. Like me, our choir members are missing our Thursday night rehearsals.

I required that all who wanted to attend be vaccinated and requested feedback and questions about any concerns. Well, we had quite a lively email discussion! There were suggestions that we not sing in the choir loft—too little distancing. There were many who voiced concerns about the delta variant and its increased communicability. And there was a question about the vaccination status of our pianist—even though she was not going to be present for this choir “sing.” I updated my info on this last concern by calling Michelina, who did not hesitate to say that she was not vaccinated and that I had her permission to give the choir that information.

When all the dust settled, I decided that we would not meet because of the delta variant. It just seemed too risky. And I emailed Todd with all the details of that email conversation so he could see all the concerns. A further development came about in the Ops Team meeting of August 10, when Todd announced that our pianist would need to be masked from now on, as the delta variant made it impossible to do anything less. This is the same standard that we expect of our own members who have medical reasons that prevent their being vaccinated.

I do hope that all of you are taking great care for your safety at this time.

Onward we go, even in these hard times…

Deb Jacquemin
UUCS Music Director