Soromundi will have a 2020-21 season, but it will look very different than usual, board president Kate Barry has announced. While members will learn new music, fall will consist largely remote and online activities.
Kate released the following update in early September:
Given present Oregon and national transmission rates and the risks associated with gathering in enclosed spaces to sing, we will begin the season via online and other remote activities such as viewing short videos or recordings. The exact format isn’t finalized but we are envisioning a mix of different ways to rehearse and practice remotely, plus some online music education including music reading and choral techniques, how to keep your voice in shape, etc.
Activities: We are researching the possibility of doing an “internet song” together. Our directors are spending part of this summer putting this program of activities together. We are also exploring ways of small group singing that minimize risk that we can implement as conditions change. Chorus members will also be using this time to be working on diversity initiatives and putting together a Soromundi 30-plus-year retrospective.
Tour: We are postponing our tour to Northern California until 2022. Even if conditions permit us to gather in some way after the winter holidays, it will be very difficult to be collectively ready for a March tour 2021 — it also is quite unlikely that travel and performance in large groups will be happening by late winter/early spring next year. It seemed most realistic to take the tour “off the table” for the upcoming year. In many ways this is a positive move — it removes the stress of not knowing whether we can travel, whether it is safe, wanting to do it but knowing it’s not likely or practical, and opens us up to thinking of the upcoming season in very different ways.
New theme for 2020-21: The board and directors are reassessing our theme for the upcoming season that encompasses the changes we will have to make, our care for each other, our love of singing, our involvement in community and recognizes the loss involved in having to do things very differently. We came up with LOVE or “All You Need is Love”. We may stay with this we may come up with other ideas — but really love is all we need….
New members: Regretfully, Soromundi is not accepting new members for the 2020-21 season. Given the constraints of the pandemic, the chorus will be working remotely in a variety of ways until rehearsing together in person and public performance is again safely possible. We are still here, we will be engaging with you, our community, we will be trying out different ways to do online music, and sending news of what we are up to via our new website — soromundi.org — Facebook, and other social media. Membership will open again in September 2021.