Given the impact that COVID-19 is having on our world, we hope to share from our heart to yours. Thank you for being a part of the greater choral community, working to navigate this uncharted territory we all find ourselves in.
It has been a very long, hard couple of weeks! We know a lot of you have been scrambling to ensure the safety of loved ones, dealing with canceled concerts, and creating remote teaching assignments. We at Chorosynthesis have been wrestling with what this means for us as an organization and the projects with which we are engaging.
As a part of this process, we want to reaffirm some of our values and then ask you to join us in:
Not letting COVID-19 hinder our plans for celebrating the centennial of women’s suffrage,
Recommitting to support the livelihood of our performing artists, and
Building community through new means as we learn the craft of music-making through online media.
Our Values Regarding Future Plans
We believe that in this moment history, it is the right thing for us to continue to plan to the best of our ability, how we will continue moving forward, despite COVID-19 and its impacts on our current rehearsals and performances, in the programming and expectation of future performances, including Fall 2020 and beyond.
We also believe that, with all of the economical impacts on people losing jobs, we should continue protecting the livelihood of artists, in this case by providing work for composers, such as Melissa Dunphy and Kala Pierson, during this “down” time where most of us are distancing ourselves socially.
We are firmly resolved in not allowing the current circumstances to get in the way of or dictate our celebration throughout 2020 of women’s suffrage in the United States and the importance of the right to vote as a form of the truest freedom.
We are committed to giving our singers inspiration, hope, and light at the end of the tunnel through bold and significant programming, including works like Amendment, Righting Our Wrongs by Melissa Dunphy and Kala Pierson.
Join Us in Celebrating Women’s Suffrage
For these reasons, we ask you to carefully consider joining our Commission Consortium; we currently have 8 choirs, but we need a minimum of 14 choirs by March 31 in order to guarantee paying our composers and finishing the work in time for all of us to premiere it around the country in the Fall. Please take some time to read the text and to consider all of the benefits we have laid out on our website and in our introductory video.
We invite you to join us in celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage. At the following link, you will find a libretto curated and partially written by Melissa Dunphy, Wendy Moy, Helena Pennington, Kala Pierson, Jeremiah Selvey, as well as details about the consortium. If you are interested but are unsure of the financial situation of your chorus, please contact us.
Our Values Regarding the Present
We are committed to creating community and connection. We view this as a time of “physical,” not “social” distancing. Our singers and audiences need us to stay connected.
We believe in learning how to adapt to these new methods from our collective wisdom.
We believe in supporting performing artists whose income is negatively impacted by a gig economy full of cancellations and indefinite postponements.
Join Us in Supporting Our Performing Artists
We were about to launch our advertising for our “Breaking the Silence: Beethoven and Beyond” performances that championed the stories of people with disabilities who transformed society, including Beethoven, whose 250th birthday we celebrate this year. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Monica College Music Department, which was hosting us as resident Choral Scholars, has had to postpone this project.
As a result, we as an organization are losing income that we were planning on passing on to our singers, and we hope to honor their ongoing work and livelihood by raising funds to pay them anyway. During this time, our singers are losing out on gigs they depend on for their livelihood. When you donate to our Chorosynthesis Singers Relief Fund, 50% of your donation will go directly to our singers whose gigs have been canceled, and the other 50% to future performances by our ensemble. When we reach the $5,000 goal, we will be able to fully compensate all the artists negatively impacted by the canceling of our June residency and performances.
By way of your donation, you are supporting artists who support our mission to infuse our art with social consciousness. As we all take care of ourselves and our families, let us not forget the artists on the front line who are losing their livelihood.
Join Us in Crowd-Resourcing for Virtual Office and Rehearsals
We have been encouraged by the choral community coming together via virtual rehearsals, the sharing of livestream concerts, the crowdsourcing of resources, and the creation of relief funds for artists. In the next week, we will begin to post some resources on our website and social media for running a virtual office, online auditions, and virtual rehearsals in order to maintain forward momentum and to cultivate community in our choirs during this time of COVID-19 disruption. Please share your thoughts and resources with us via email and social media, and we will strive to help highlight your contributions for the greater common good.
Thank You for Joining Us
In times like these, we must provide leadership that relies on facts, inspires those who follow, and supports the ongoing work and importance that the performing arts have in bringing us together, lifting our spirits, and challenging us to soar to new heights. Thank you for your part in this process!
All the best,
Jeremiah & Wendy