Yesterday the Early Music Hawaii board made the difficult decision to postpone the September 11th all-Josquin concert.

Here is the message from Ian Capps, president of Early Music Hawaii:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear Lovers of Early Music:

Given the sudden and serious developments in COVID infections here and the uncertainty of whether gatherings will be further limited in the next few days, we regret to announce the postponement of the live streaming of Josquin’s 500th Anniversary concert scheduled for September 11. We fully intend to reschedule the event as soon as pandemic conditions permit and will keep you advised when we have another date.

Vocal performances such as this program are exceptionally sensitive. The safety of our loyal performers is paramount. They are all vaccinated and healthy now but the higher incidence of “breakthrough” infections from the Delta variant is such that we cannot put them at risk during final rehearsals and the performance.

We appreciate your support and understanding in this difficult time for all the performing arts, and hope to bring you the joys of Josquin’s music soon.

Ian Capps, President

For me personally it means that instead of having eight rehearsals this week, I am only having four! (OH WOW!) I did have to scramble a bit yesterday to send out the email notices of the postponement as well as update the Early Music Hawaii website and Facebook page.

To be honest, I am a little disappointed because the original September 11th date meant that Naomi and Karyn Castro (and Naomi’s brand-new fiancé as of yesterday (!) baritone Dylan Bunten) would be here in Hawai’i to join the ensemble. With the concert postponed, it’s not known if the concert can be rescheduled when the three can be here again. (Naomi and Dylan are in graduate school at the University of Oregon and Karyn works in Washington, D.C.)

The mayor of Honolulu is instituting a “Safe Access Oahu” policy as of September 13: The “Safe Access O‘ahu” program requires all employees, contractors, and volunteers of businesses, such as restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theaters, museums, arcades and other similar establishments, to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 test result each week in order to operate. In addition, customers must show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result taken within the previous 48 hours in order to enter the establishment. Children under 12 years old are exempt.

With this in mind, we are going ahead for the First Mondays concert which will be livestreamed on September 6 at 7:00 pm. (We don’t have any singing in this concert — it’s all instrumental). However, I was slightly frustrated last night at our first rehearsal because there was a sticking note on the harpsichord.

Having to play many repeated notes caused a lot of consternation!