Domestic Music Festivals and concern about Corona Virus

We really need to pay the deposit on a music festival all the way across the country. Have any festivals in US been cancelled beyond the Oberlin programs? It is not just the festival itself that is concerning but the travel getting there. What are you guys doing about mid June festivals? Thanks.

Some of the venues are owned by cities and they are closed. Denver closed its venues for 8 weeks, so until mid May, but I really don’t see them opening before June. They just aren’t going to be the first priority in getting the world back in order. Those venues require police presence, city workers to run the concessions, parking, and other things.

Hotels and airlines will be happy to see you make reservations.

Any thoughts on Aspen?

Verbier is cancelled.

Any parents of high schoolers pulling the plug now? We are concerned about housing - shared dorm room or cabin situations?

Indiana Summer Strings Academy is cancelled.

Aspen is one of the hot spots in our state for Covid 19 - Aspen, Vail, Telluride (see a pattern? Tourists brought the virus to Colorado).

Sewanee is offering to refund the deposit if they cancel. My guess is most festivals will as well.

Verbier is cancelled, however they are offering the students to come back for 2021.
Anyone knows if other cancelled festivals are saving spots for next year or are they going to make people re-audition ?

UMich is doing all of their summer programs online, they just announced on their website. It looks like they are trying to figure out which programs are actually doable this way, and will cancel the disciplines that can’t be taught virtually.

twoinanddone, I value your opinion. If they do not cancel would you send you kid to Aspen mid June this year? It involves getting him across the country.

My son only applied to international programs, but, since we’re in the NYC metro area, I’ve been wondering if programs would be particularly reluctant to have participants coming in from “hot spots” like ours…Although I fear that there will be a lot more hot spots developing as time goes by. I may be overly pessimistic, but I kind of doubt that they’ll be giving the “all clear” signal by the beginning of June. I hope so, but…

I just got the email from HeifetzPEG. They announced that the program is cancelled this summer. All applicants are automatically applied for the next year, and we are waved for application fee.

@figaro77 : Heifetz is going online I believe for the summer - they;re not canceling entirely. Here’s a link I got in email :

https://www.heifetzinstitute.org/virtual2020/

thank you for the information!

My son applied to a music festival in Milan that has decided to do it online (we haven’t heard back yet about whether he’s been accepted). But I was wondering if, by the time the semester ends for students who have had to finish their classes for the year online, they’ll have had more than enough of online learning for a while!
Still, it’s great that a lot of programs are adapting so readily. I sure wish I had stock in Zoom!

Has anyone heard any news on Aspen yet?

@AsMother - how is the time difference going to work out I wonder…

As far as we know (Vocal) WNO, Brevard and Summer Julliard (Florida) are all still on. There’s a pretty extensive master list of summer programs and their statuses on the Classical Singer webpage, for any vocalists to check out.

WNO sent us an email letting us know they are definitely still planning on going forward with the program. If need be, they could adapt the time schedule, which would likely mean cutting it short. Start date for that one is June 22 in D.C. They let us know they would be flexible with payments during this time and if they do end up canceling, all payments, including the non-refundable deposit would be returned. My D received a partial outside scholarship for that program and they let us know that a cancellation would extend the scholarship to Summer 2021.

This is certainly a tough time for these young kids. I know my D is very excited about this summer and her plans center around these camps. If they are canceled, it will be a huge let down. After losing the last months of school, school play, Jr Prom, All-State Chorus, Solo & Ensemble and so far, three weeks of voice lessons…im hoping things return to normal soon,

I realize this is uncertain times and this situation is literally life and death for many people. I just wish for normalcy for ALL of us.

My son made the very difficult decision to pass on Aspen this year. Getting him all the way across the country was one of the many reasons but I feel better since he said no. He said there was a box to check about why he was declining and the virus was one of the choices.

@gram22 , good question! We’re on EST, so the time difference would only be 6 hours. It would be trickier for them, no doubt, to schedule around people on the West Coast, for example. I guess that where there is a will, there’s a way!
At this point, I would also be in agreement with @cellocompmom 's son about traveling, even domestically. Things have gotten really bad really fast where we live, and a trip to the corner market here is getting complicated and nerve-wracking, with all the unknowns so far, and the strict rules that have been put in place by our extremely pro-active mayor. I can understand that it would be really heartbreaking to get in and then not be able to attend; on the other hand so little is certain right now, and that state of affairs seems to be getting worse, in some ways, rather than better.
And I would no longer be able to think (even if I weren’t considering possible transmission to older/at-risk people), “Well, my child is young, so if he gets it he’ll be okay.” There’s no guarantee there, either.