Potential Impact of COVID-19 on Libera

[filiarheni]

The Escolanía de Montserrat has just published the below video. I wish Libera would give us such a song, too, that would be a wonderful treat.

[bachmahlerfan]

I see that St. Philip's, Libera's home base, started a crowdfunding page on justgiving.com. I am concerned about the financial impacts on Libera resulting from this pandemic. I don't know how it will affect Libera as a non-profit, but if St. Philip's ends up in a tough financial situation, Libera could be adversely affected.

[Surpinto]

My understanding is that many churches and religious institutions are suffering without the ability to collect weekly donations at prayer services. Let us hope that Libera is not impacted. The way to be sure to alleviate that is to donate to Libera and/or their church.

[TullyBascombe]

Doesn't St. Philip's get support from the Church of England, the national church? Does the Church of England still get support from the national government? How would one go about donating to St. Philip's?

[john45]

Actually it's the other way round. The parish of St. Philip's is expected to give financial support to the diocese of Southwark.
You can donate to St. Philip's at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding ... ipsnorbury

[Yorkie]

Doesn't St. Philip's get support from the Church of England, the national church? Does the Church of England still get support from the national government? How would one go about donating to St. Philip's?

The CofE may have access to some govt grants to help maintain churches and cathedrals but I don't think they get any money towards running costs.

[filiarheni]

Two large choir associations for Catholic church music and children's and youth choirs over here in Germany have developed a hygiene concept for what choir rehearsals should look like when they'll be starting again. Here's an interview:

https://translate.google.de/translate?h ... orgestellt

3 m distance in every direction! Plenty of space is needed, so most choirs will have to rehearse in various groups. And firm discipline is compulsory of course. It's a calming thought that the boys and girls of many choirs are used to a high degree of discipline anyway. I suppose they can be trusted better than adults ... A second person besides the conductor is required to look after the compliance with these rules.

It will be interesting to see whether this will be implemented and how it works in real life and also to hear about the ideas of other countries/organisations regarding choir rehearsals.

[filiarheni]

Here you can read an interview, broadcast yesterday on NDR Kultur, about a study regarding choir singing / rehearsing, which seems well-grounded with reliable findings:

https://translate.google.de/translate?h ... en100.html

[bachmahlerfan]

So, I see that the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport) put out new guidelines for choirs to meet in England. What's not clear to me, is whether these guidelines only include professional choirs or include amateur ones as well. There seems to be some confusion from what I've been reading on twitter. Obviously, this distinction would be important for Libera, as they would be considered an amateur choir since none of the singers are making a living as a choir member. Even if these guidelines do include amateur choirs, the Church of England would still have to give the green light. As for the Ely Concert, the restrictions in place regarding the number of people allowed in the building would probably result in Libera losing money. So, even if they could squeeze in enough rehearsal time, they may be better off cancelling the concert. I'm hoping they can do a studio recording sometime in the Fall.

[bachmahlerfan]

Well, from what I read in the Church of England website, non-professional choirs can resume singing at church services (in accordance with the government's guidelines). However, it says it must be a 'small' group of singers, without specifying a number. I guess that depends on how many singers they can fit in their space while observing social distancing. I'm assuming they would use a smaller group at St. Philip's for now, because it's not a very large church. I don't know what this means for their rehearsals, and for practicing any music as 'Libera'. Anyways, I'll provide the link if you want to explore the Church of England's guidelines.
https://www.churchofengland.org/more/me ... hurches#na

[bachmahlerfan]

I noticed that St Philip's tweeted last Sunday about cancelling the scheduled Choral Evensong that day. I hope everything is going alright with the group.

[TullyBascombe]

Have they been having a singing choir at Evensong? I thought that singing choirs were contraindicated according to Covid restrictions?

[bachmahlerfan]

Have they been having a singing choir at Evensong? I thought that singing choirs were contraindicated according to Covid restrictions?

I don't believe they have yet, as this was the first mention of it from St Philip's in a long time. However, it does seem that they had plans to do it last Sunday, and then cancelled it for some reason. From what I've read, choral singing isn't totally banned within a church service, but there are some guidelines that must be followed. They probably have to have a smaller group of singers than they normally would, and practice social distancing. It's not clear to me whether the "rule of six" is being enforced for all church choirs. In the documents I read, there seemed to be an ongoing discussion between the government and churches regarding that rule. Here are a couple of Church of England links which deal with this: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/me ... hurches#na
https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/d ... v2.5_3.pdf

[TullyBascombe]

I didn't see anything specifically addressing safety issues for singing though apparently non-professional groups are permitted to do so. Still, many medical authorities recommend against singing in groups because it is believed that viruses would be propelled further by a si9nging voice, so the 2 meter rule would not be sufficient.

[bachmahlerfan]

I didn't see anything specifically addressing safety issues for singing though apparently non-professional groups are permitted to do so. Still, many medical authorities recommend against singing in groups because it is believed that viruses would be propelled further by a si9nging voice, so the 2 meter rule would not be sufficient.

Well, whether the Church of England's restrictions are too lenient is a tough call. I'm just talking about what is permitted at the moment according to the documents I read. I suppose that individual parishes can further restrict choral singing as they see fit. I do know that choir members were rehearsing at St. Philip's a few weeks ago, but I don't know what's happened since then.