Philly Chamber Music forced to go all-virtual

[Ricordanza]

This fall, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society was unable to hold concerts in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater (about 600 seats), so it switched to the much smaller Benjamin Franklin Hall in the American Philosophical Society. Only 25 people were allowed to attend concerts there; the rest attended "virtually." Now, new restrictions in Philadelphia have forced PCMS to end all in-person concerts until....who knows when? Here's an excerpt from their announcement which I received today:

Since October, with the help and support of so many of you, we have been able to bring great music-making safely back to our community, while providing much-needed opportunities and income to exceptionally talented musicians. We hope you have joined us for our performances at the American Philosophical Society's Benjamin Franklin Hall—either as part of our small, socially-distanced audiences or online through our live-streaming.

As you may know, yesterday, in response to rising COVID cases, the city issued new public health mandates, which include a ban on all public attendance in concert halls. We are pleased, however, that city health officials have granted us permission to continue our online activities. Therefore, we are moving ahead with the streaming of our scheduled concerts on Nov. 19 (pianist Roman Rabinovich), Nov. 22 (the Jasper Quartet w/ pianist Amy Yang), and Nov. 24 (pianist Jonathan Biss).

[Rach3]

Under our moron Trumpist Governor, we're still playing high school football in Iowa.

[maestrob]

I'm intrigued by the Roman Rabinovitch concert tomorrow, since their website says it will be available for 72 hours after the actual event for streaming. Haven't heard him yet, and he did win the Rubinstein competition in 2008.

I suppose, like the MET, a $20 donation would be appropriate?

Thanks for the alert!

[Ricordanza]

I'm intrigued by the Roman Rabinovitch concert tomorrow, since their website says it will be available for 72 hours after the actual event for streaming. Haven't heard him yet, and he did win the Rubinstein competition in 2008.

I suppose, like the MET, a $20 donation would be appropriate?

Thanks for the alert!

I've heard good things about this pianist, so I'm planning to "tune in" to the livestream recital. You can pay any amount; it's entirely voluntary. However, for the past two concerts (Amy Yang and Jeremy Denk), I paid $25 each since that's the approximate cost of a ticket to a PCMS concert. Best bargain in classical music!

[lennygoran]

Now, new restrictions in Philadelphia have forced PCMS to end all in-person concerts until....who knows when?

Hank feel bad for you-just today got an email-the Philadelphia Art Museum is closing for awhile- and now NYC has just closed Public Schools.

Covid-19 Live Updates: N.Y.C. Public Schools Will Close Thursday as Virus Spreads

The Food and Drug Administration authorized the first at-home coronavirus test. Lacking federal guidance, states are racing to impose a patchwork of restrictions to slow new infections.



N.Y.C. will shutter public schools on Thursday as virus cases increase.


New York City’s public school system will shutter on Thursday, the schools chancellor, Richard A. Carranza, wrote in an email to principals, in a worrisome signal that a second wave of the coronavirus has arrived. Schools have been open for in-person instruction for just under eight weeks.

“As of this morning, November 18, the City has now reached this threshold of test positivity citywide and, as a result, the DOE will temporarily close down all public school buildings for in-person learning, Thursday, November 19,” Mr. Carranza wrote shortly after 2 p.m. on Wednesday, about four hours after Mayor Bill de Blasio was scheduled to give a news conference. Mr. de Blasio confirmed the news in a tweet.

The shutdown — which was prompted by the city’s reaching a 3 percent test positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average — is perhaps the most significant setback for New York’s recovery since the spring, when the city was a global epicenter of the outbreak.

It was also a major disappointment for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was the first big-city mayor in the country to reopen school buildings. Moving to all-remote instruction will disrupt the education of many of the roughly 300,000 children who have been attending in-person classes and create major child care problems for parents who count on their children being at school for at least part of the week.

Virus transmission in city schools had remained very low since classrooms reopened at the end of September, and the spike in cases does not appear to be caused by the reopening of school buildings.

Still, as the city chose to end in-person learning, indoor dining and gyms will remain open at a reduced capacity. Nonessential workers can continue to use public transportation to commute to offices.

That dynamic has infuriated parents run ragged by fluctuating school schedules and frustrated public health experts who have been pushing for more in-person instruction. It has also led to calls for the mayor and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to make keeping classrooms open their highest priority.

New York is home to the nation’s largest school system, with 1,800 schools and 1.1 million students. The city’s public school families, the vast majority of whom are low-income and Black or Latino, have endured roughly eight months of confusion about whether and when schools would be open or closed.

Mr. de Blasio had put school reopening at the center of his push to revive the city, and he has repeatedly said that remote learning is inferior to classroom instruction. But many teachers and parents have said that the city has not done nearly enough to improve online learning.

Case numbers are rising so quickly in New York that more restrictions appear likely. Mr. de Blasio has said that indoor dining should be reassessed; only Mr. Cuomo has the authority to close indoor dining rooms.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said that he would shut down indoor dining in the city and impose other restrictions once the state’s data showed that the city had reached a 3 percent test positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average.

On Wednesday, the state’s health data showed that the city had a seven-day rolling average of 2.5 percent. Over the course of the pandemic, the city’s health department’s numbers have often differed from the state’s.

Meeting the 3 percent threshold would qualify the city to be an “orange” zone, the second level of restrictions under the state’s color-coded tier system, which applies different limits in regions of the state where the virus is surging more severely than others.

Parts of the city where cases have risen in recent weeks have been subject to more restrictions, but officials have declined to impose restrictions across all five boroughs.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo also said that parts of the Bronx would be placed into a “yellow zone” and that the state would expand the existing yellow zone in Queens. In those zones, open schools must conduct weekly testing of students and staff, gatherings are limited to 25 people and houses of worship are limited to half their capacity.

Statewide, New York reported a seven-day average positivity test rate of 2.88 percent, and 2,202 people were hospitalized, Mr. Cuomo said.

In the state’s orange zones, all schools, private and public, are required to close and shift to remote learning. Under the state’s plan, schools must remain closed for at least four days and are allowed to reopen if they meet certain testing criteria.

In orange zones, some nonessential businesses deemed high risk, such as gyms and personal-care services, are also required to close. Indoor dining must end, and restaurants with outdoor dining can serve no more than four people at a table. Houses of worship are limited to 25 people or 33 percent capacity, and all mass gatherings are limited to 10 people. Gatherings at private residences are also limited to 10 people statewide.

The state added new restrictions to parts of Western New York, where Mr. Cuomo said the positivity rate was 5.1 percent. Parts of Erie County, which encompasses Buffalo, will be moved into an orange zone; other parts of the county and parts of neighboring Niagara County will become a yellow zone.