News: e-notes

Dear members of Choral Canada,

This is a reminder that Choral Canada will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Thursday, August 20, 2020, at 12:00 PM EST. The meeting will be held by Zoom. The purpose of this meeting is for the Board to report to, and receive direction from, the membership.  All members in good standing may attend.

As announced in a previous email, the Choral Canada Nominating Committee submitted to the Choral Canada Board of Directors a list of voting members who are willing to stand for election. The Board of Directors has approved this slate of nominees.

List of Nominees for the 2020-21 Choral Canada Board of Directors

For Election
Morna Edmundson- President-Elect
Heather Fraser – Director
Elroy Friesen – Director
Irma Mackenzie – Director
Anne Longmore – Director
Marie-Élène Lamoureux – Provincial Choral Organization Representative

For Re-Election
Emma Walker – Treasurer

By Appointment of the Board
Kellie Walsh – Past-President

Continuing Board Members
Laurier Fagnan – Incoming President
Tim Callahan-Cross – Provincial Choral Organization Representative
Willi Zwozdesky – Provincial Choral Organization Representative
Amy Pun – Secretary

Voting
Class A Members are entitled to vote at the Annual General Meeting. Class A Members are Individual and Component members.  The Individual membership category includes Individual, Student, Life and Honorary members.  The Component membership category includes one designated representative from each of the eight provincial choral organizations.

Since the meeting is held by Zoom, the Chair of the meeting will determine the voting procedure. Please refer to the Voting Ballot for information. You are also welcome to vote by proxy. You must complete the AGM Proxy Form by hand, scan and send by email to info@choralcanada.org by latest 5:00pm EDT on August 18, 2020.

AGM Materials
Materials will be circulated in both English and French; however, the meeting will proceed in English.  This email includes the meeting agenda, proxy form, ballot form. The financial statements are available to members upon request.

As there is limited opportunity for extended discussion at this meeting, agenda items include the minimum items of business required.

Please feel free to contact us at info@choralcanada.org with questions or for more information.

Click here to read and download the official PDF version of this letter.

Choral Canada is the national arts service organization for the Canadian choral community and professional choral arts sector.

10% of the Canadian population sings in a choir in almost 28,000 choirs of all kinds according to the 2017 national choral census.That is approximately 3.5 million choristers.1 Choral singing truly is Canada’s national pastime!

As stewards of the choral artform, our #1 priority is the safety and well-being of choristers and the choral industry/sector.

We are seeking constructive avenues of communication among the Canadian Choral community, health officials and policy makers so that we can provide unified guidelines for the choral community. We feel strongly that a thoughtful, informed and collaborative approach is the best way forward.

We are looking to work with health officials and policy makers to find modifications and practical guidelines for safe singing, guidelines that are rooted in scientific research. We seek to create sensible safety guidelines that align with other sectors, such as adult rec hockey, gyms, dance studios, children’s soccer camps, etc. In fact, some provinces have already made recommendations for safe singing.

We appreciate the recent intention of the media to highlight how choirs are innovating and trying to survive during this time, but sensationalist headlines do even more damage to this already devastated arts sector including the professionals and associated industries who rely heavily on the choral arts for income. There is a lot at stake here. We cannot overstate the financial, emotional, cultural and physical damage of negative news articles and comments to the entire choral sector. These recent negative headlines have been pointed directly at the choral sector based on little more than anecdotal evidence.

Definitive scientific studies about COVID-19 transmission in relation to singing versus other forms of activities such as loud talking or cheering and other aerobic activity, have yet to be published. The Government of Alberta recognized the lack of credible, scientific evidence surrounding this subject in its Covid-19 Scientific Advisory Group Rapid Evidence Report, stating:

There is a gap in the scientific knowledge regarding the aerosolization of COVID-19 in particular for such activities [singing]. The evidence that COVID-19 is transmitted through singing is largely limited to media reports, and it is uncertain whether the transmission that occurred in these settings was related to aerosolization through singing, or through droplet or contact transmission… The committee agreed it is unclear whether the risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus via singing may be caused by aerosolizing of respiratory particles, or large droplets being expelled, or a combination, or social behaviors associated with close groups (close contact, handshaking, hugging etc.)2

On July 3rd, The Government of Nova Scotia shared new guidelines for musicians, providing guidance for organizations as they plan for their upcoming 2020/21 seasons.  The Nova Scotia Choral Federation has been meeting with Dr. Strang’s office to ensure the guidelines address the needs of our choral community. Full guidelines, as well as other COVID-19 related resources can be found here:

COVID-19: Factsheets and Posters 
https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/resources/

COVID-19 Guidance for Vocalists and Instrumentalists
https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/docs/COVID-19-Guidance-for-Vocalists-and-Instrumentalists.pdf