Rock Voices was at the forefront of the local response to the pandemic, opting to shut down in-person singing in early March 2020. We deeply appreciate all the support and compliance from our membership; it’s been a long road, hasn’t it? We could not have made it this far without your support.
We returned to in-person rehearsals for the spring 2022 session with masking, temperature checks, vaccinations, distancing and more. We utilized a calculator developed by MIT for this purpose, allowing us to set limits on the number of people in the room based on data such as cubic footage, ventilation, and more. As the pandemic has evolved, so have our policies – so that at this point in time, we are relying upon vaccine proof (with medical exemptions allowed) and mandatory masking for all.
In every county where our choirs are located, we have been tracking data such as case counts, vaccination rates, wastewater surveillance and more. We’ve seen the data ebb and flow for years now, and while current (post-Thanksgiving) numbers are climbing, we expect this to reverse by the time our spring session is underway in February.
We are heartened to see progress, even while we remain dismayed by the public health response to a pandemic with no sign of going away entirely. Rock Voices has held on for a long time, but as we face 2023, we have to make some changes or we risk going under.
We believe that Rock Voices provides an essential experience for people from all walks of life, building community and providing a musical outlet that is accessible to all. We remain committed to our mission, “healing ourselves and others through song”, and we believe Rock Voices is needed now more than ever.
Effective for the spring session (which starts Jan 30 – Feb 2), we will shift to a mask-optional policy. We will continue to require vaccination proof (with medical exemptions). And we will stress – very strongly – that anyone who is not feeling well should NOT attend in person, but instead attend a virtual rehearsal.