KC choir wants concerts to spread holiday cheer. Could they also spread COVID-19?
Should your holiday season include shopping for a way to get around COVID-19 restrictions — or a way to avoid the virus itself?
That’s the dilemma a well-meaning choral group has put folks in by moving its long-running holiday concerts away from Kansas City’s coronavirus restrictions and to a church in Leavenworth County, where commissioners have decided not to mandate masks.
And while the William Baker Festival Singers’ concerts at Holy Angels Catholic Church in Basehor Friday and Sunday will require social distancing and masks — even for the singers — is this such a good idea?
The genteel founder and conductor Baker thinks so, anyway.
“I do,” he told The Star. “We have taken a position that we are finding a way to — with a reasonable level of safety — present live music. If I felt we were putting our members or our audience at risk by doing these concerts, we would not do them.”
Moreover, he says, after so many months of isolation and at this special time of year, people are starving for the spiritual nourishment of Christmas song.
“There’s a pandemic of soul and spirit. There’s a lot of hurting people,” Baker explains. “And I think a program like this is essential. I think great music and live performances are essential to the recovery of the soul and spirit, just as the work of researchers and responders is essential to the care of our bodies and our health.
“We have gone through the channels to do this right. We are very strict with our safety protocols. We have a number of physicians and health professionals who are members of the chorus who are choosing to participate. We have consulted with medical professionals. We are certified under the Missouri Arts Council in their Arts Safe certification program. Our staff has gone through the training to acquire that certification. All of the things that we are doing are within the bounds of the recommendations that they give.”
We don’t doubt Baker’s intentions or sincere belief this can be done safely in the grip of a pandemic. The Star Editorial Board simply doesn’t share that conviction. And we’ve made that plain in opposing all such gatherings, from high school to collegiate and professional sports, as well as public performances.
And most, if not all, performance troupes and organizations agree with us, choosing to either go dark or go virtual in order to honor COVID-19 restrictions and keep their members and fans safe. At a crushing financial cost to those organizations, it must be said. From the Lyric Opera to KC Ballet — no Nutcracker this year — to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, KC Repertory Theatre, the Carlsen Center, KC Jazz Orchestra and more, the performing arts have shuttered in compliance with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ and area health officials’ directives.
So, while Baker no doubt wants to spread joy, the region has to concern itself with the spread of disease and the inadvertent transmission of it at a Christmas concert, which could ultimately endanger those not in attendance.
‘Influx of community spread’ in Leavenworth County
Even with a COVID-19 vaccine trickling our way, it will be months before the pandemic has passed. And for now, the danger is as present as ever: A month ago, Forbes magazine ranked Kansas 10th-worst in the nation for COVID-19 spread. More alarming still, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes this week that, were U.S. states considered countries, Kansas would be in the top 15 for per-capita death rate.
“We’re seeing an influx of community spread,” Leavenworth County health director Jamie Miller told the county commission in late November. “Community spread means it’s unknown exactly where everyone is catching it from. It’s everywhere.”
Reminding commissioners of the ways to protect public health — including staying at home — Miller added, “We need to do everything and anything we can to push these strategies out into our community to help slow the spread. … We cannot continue down this path.”
Talking projects the virus, and singing projects it even farther, says Kansas City Health Department Director Dr. Rex Archer. Asked if he would go to such an event or would want a loved one to go, Archer replied, “Absolutely not. And I would advise anybody to not do that” — particularly those over 50 or with pre-existing conditions, or those who live with such people.
While masks and other mitigating efforts are more prevalent now, back in March, some 52 of 61 choir members were infected with COVID-19 at a rehearsal in a church in Washington state. At least two died.
Baker says his assiduous mitigation efforts will minimize the risks. But the free Friday and Sunday concerts will also be livestreamed on Facebook, so leaving it at that and not inviting the public in would have been a safer strategy.
Other performing arts organizations have gone to great pains to go online for everyone’s safety: Lyric Opera of Kansas City canceled its live production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” and is offering a puppet-enhanced version for ticket purchase online. The Topeka Festival Singers took the extraordinary trouble of recording each of its singers separately from home and splicing them together into an online mini-concert.
It can be done absolutely safely online. It is highly doubtful that’s true in person.
And we — along with health professionals and performing arts organizations — are certain it’s not worth the risk.