Open Voices Covid Journey
In Fall 2021, after a 1.5 year hiatus, Open Voices resumed its activities, within the confines of public health guidelines and caution. We had 3 sing song/rehearsal sessions on Andy Rush’s front lawn in September, followed by four glorious sessions in the pavilion at Lake Ontario Park. The weather was so great for ALL of these, and to be together again, and also welcoming friends and newcomers to join us felt so good. We resumed live rehearsals indoors at Cooke’s Portsmouth United Church in November 2021, being very careful about safety and comfort, but after 3 evenings Omicron whacked us.
We started up again in March 2022, with about 65 persons attending rehearsals, and continued to ‘proceed with caution’ making steady progress in re-learning how to sing, how to be an ensemble, how to follow our intrepid director’s teaching and how to have fun! We remained ready to pivot and modify anything. Even our May 25, 2022 concert at Cooke’s had flexibility built into it.
All through this, our board of directors provided remarkable, intelligent, compassionate leadership. Wow! The whole choir was so grateful for that. Many member volunteers continued to support the operations of the choir through all of this….. Thank You!