East Bay Community Music Project

Music Is Community!

Statement Regarding Our Response To Current Conditions Related To COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus)

on March 15, 2020

Hi folks,

We want to let you know that our 8th Annual Spring Festival will be canceled in its current form due to precaution recommendations to keep people safe from the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. We are working and planning to find safe ways of promoting community under the current conditions. We will keep you informed of our plans as the situation develops. We are also suspending our other classes, programs and gatherings until it is clearly safe to resume these activities in community.

We at EBCMP are committed to building community through fun and engaging musical activities, for all people. Singing in community is an activity that helps to boost an individual’s immune system, and helps to foster the interpersonal bonds that hold us together as a community. The decision to suspend community gatherings has been a truly heart-breaking one for us. Especially in times of hardship and adversity, music is something we carry with us that we can access at any time to comfort, motivate, and inspire us.

But given that airborne transmission between people in close proximity is a hallmark of the COVID-19 virus, and that individuals who are able to transmit the virus may not show any symptoms, we cannot, in good conscience, invite people to share breath in close quarters until it is quite clear that it is safe to do so. Also, as our activities are inter-generational, we work with some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Children that attend our gatherings are often cared for by older relatives and caregivers, who are the most at-risk segment of the population.

Our team is in close communication, and we are looking for safe and situationally-appropriate ways to help people to continue to stay connected through music-making, and we will keep you updated as developments arise. We have created a wonderful structure that allows people to connect, create, and express themselves in harmony with others. Now, it’s time to improvise over that structure. Improvisation can be scary! But it is where the magic happens–it is where we get to experience what we’ve learned and take it into new territories that we didn’t know existed.

Take care, stay safe, keep singing, and keep in touch,

The EBCMP Team

https://ebcmp.org

info@ebcmp.org


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