In my ongoing project to learn how our local live performance associations — music, drama, dance — are dealing with the pandemic, I was getting ready to send my questionnaire to Eric Valinsky, president of the indispensable Santa Barbara Music Club, when a letter from him arrived in my inbox, answering just about everything I would have asked him about. So, I will just trim it down a bit and pass it on.
“Early in March,” he began, “the Santa Barbara Music Club board realized that many of our members, board members, musicians and audience are in high-risk groups for COVID-19. We considered ways to make our concerts safer and whether to cancel concerts as needed.
“Subsequent actions by our governor and our local Department of Public Health rendered these discussions moot. In its last meeting, the board voted to make official our compliance with health directives and to suspend our concerts, senior outreach, and scholarship auditions until it is declared safe to resume them.”
Eric goes on to answer, somewhat tersely, what is usually my opening question — what changes the crisis has made in his own life.
“[T]he degree of uncertainty is crushing,” he says. “We all have different ways to deal with uncertainty. With me, it’s inertia. It’s taken me a month to start this letter, and I’m still struggling with the words. I wish I had something definite to say about our future plans, but there is no way to do this at this time.”
There is nothing uncertain about his next statement, however: “Our Music Club is in sound financial shape, and with the continued support of our members, we will be able to keep the organization intact until we are able to resume activities.”
For the time being, the club’s “concert series and outreach programs have been cancelled, and will resume when it’s no longer dangerous to do so. Meanwhile, we will look at options to stream music to our community free of charge from our website.”
The scholarship auditions have been similarly postponed. “The scholarship committee and the judges rejected the idea of online or taped auditions because they felt it might give an unfair advantage to those with better computer resources. The board agreed. When the auditions resume, current applicants will have the opportunity to update their audition selections if desired.”
All of their decisions have been made with a view to protecting the safety of their members and the loyal music lovers who made up the capacity audiences of their fabulous free concerts. Like most of us, Maestro Valinsky is guardedly optimistic about the future, and wants us to know the club is in for the long haul:
“Your health and safety are very important to us. We are happy that we have been able to flatten the curve, but this only means that we are at the starting gate, not the finish line. We have lessened the frequency of infection and we haven’t exhausted our medical resources, but the ultimate number of infections and death toll depends on the availability of treatment and eventually, of a vaccine.
“Until that happens, you must take every step to avoid infection, including sheltering at home, using a mask when you need to go out, and washing your hands or using hand sanitizer frequently. Please stay safe and healthy.”
The letter concludes: “Much love to all of you, Eric Valinsky.”
For more information about the Music Club, or to offer support, go online to www.sbmusicclub.org.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.