Band Apart

Last night my band president announced that the board had decided to cancel all our summer performances. Not surprising - I think at this point we've all heard the story of the choir that had a major COVID-19 outbreak after rehearsing together. A wind band would be the same, with lots of forceful air and droplets being blown around, heavy breathing, and members in close proximity. Plus, many of our members and our audiences are at-risk populations like the elderly (heck, many of our venues are retirement homes; we even play twice a year at the veterans' center that is the site of a major outbreak and investigation in my county). I've written before about my concerns about band.

July 4th, 2019 concert

Anyway, I'm not surprised, I'm relieved. They're talking about finding a large rehearsal space for fall, and splitting the band into two smaller ensembles to practice. We can barely find a rehearsal space for us to all fit all crammed together now, so I don't know where we're going to find one that will allow for appropriate spacing of even half the band, especially considering the increased force of air blown through an instrument. And then would the two halves come together at the end for a concert..?

I actually had a dream/nightmare last night that we were playing a concert in the parking lot of my local township building (which we have never performed at before), and they had marks on the ground to space things out, but then I realized there were so many cars in the parking lot, there were still too many people. ...We're all going to be having really weird dreams for a long time to come, aren't we?