April 2, 2020
Dear 18th Street Singers family,
After carefully monitoring the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last month, the 18th Street Singers has made the difficult decision to cancel our formal spring season and June concert. Our hope is that by summer it will be medically appropriate to hold auditions and all come together again for our fall 2020 season.
While we had wished to reconvene as soon as possible, our first obligation is to the well-being of the community. Like any community, many of our group have underlying health conditions, some of us are pregnant or have young children, some of us live with or provide care for older family members. In addition to the risks that gathering for rehearsals poses to our own Singers’ health, the traditional end product of our season -- gathering with hundreds of you, our community and audience members, in a small space for a concert -- poses further obvious health challenges.
As you know, our spring concert is the product of many months of dedicated weekly work that we undertake as a group. While we are disappointed and saddened to make this difficult decision, we also hope that this cancellation will keep both our audience and members from going through cycles of anticipation and disappointment if we continued to reevaluate on a weekly basis.
The cancellation of our performances and those of other groups around the country will result in significant financial challenges for arts groups and artists themselves. While the 18th Street Singers is rare in operating as an all-volunteer non-profit, we still do have ongoing costs for in-progress commissions, and thousands of other arts groups are facing existential challenges around their payrolls and ongoing viability. We encourage you to consider allocating what you would have spent on tickets or performances this spring for donations to local arts groups.
For those of you who already purchased a ticket to “A More Perfect Unison” on April 19th, Eventbrite refunds will automatically be processed soon. Should there be any issues with this refund, please contact us at info@18thstreetsingers.com. We look forward to collaborating with our fellow D.C. singers soon!
We apologize for any inconvenience and join you in a feeling of great disappointment at not being able to perform this season. Music and the arts are powerful vehicles of human emotion, empathy, and shared experience; it is times like these in which we realize just how important they are to the fabric of society. Even though we cannot gather in-person, the 18th Street Singers will still try to share our music to maintain that connection. Stay tuned over the next months for some of those projects.
Thank you for your support during this challenging time and throughout these last 15 years. We are grateful for this incredible musical community and look forward to singing for you again next season.
Take care,
The 18th Street Singers