This month, Max Walker, Sub-Dean, is standing in for John Rice, our Dean, and writing this column.
Welcome to spring! Well, sort of. I think that by the time most of you open this, Salt Lake is supposed to be having snow again. I’m content with that. I got my few days of 60F weather, so a brief snow storm, even if it dumps 2 feet, will be fine. 60F is still coming back soon….
Last Month’s Successes
First, let’s talk about last month. We had a great event in Ogden at the Egyptian Theater and the Ogden Tabernacle. It was well-attended, and there were cries for more of that! For a few reasons, I think that you can expect an uptick in events in Ogden over the next year.
Coming up…
Next, let’s talk about what’s coming up. Certainly, some events in the next 30-60 days are being delayed or canceled because of the evolving protocols around COVID-19 prevention, and because even organ events can muster crowds larger than 100 people! That’s the silver lining! We expect that these changes will be temporary, and that many of these excellent events will be rescheduled.
Here are some changes that we know of now:
March 2020: We have no scheduled chapter events in March. There are events at other venues, and you should confirm their schedules, delays, etc., with them directly.
For April, there are two advertised and sponsored events that are affected:
- April 17: James Welch on Temple Square: this event has been canceled for now.
- April 28: Our masterclass with the guest artist at Utah State University will be delayed until their larger festival event is rescheduled.
For May, we are still on schedule for now! We have our Season Finale scheduled for May 16. You can read about it below. We think it will be a fun event for the chapter!
We are also beginning work on our 2020-21 schedule. Pedals, Pipes, and Pizza will obviously make its return in October. And our big event next season will be the return of Super Saturday! It is currently scheduled for February 6, 2021 at the University of Utah. Jan Clayton is leading that planning and already has a great line-up of classes, activities, and recitals for the day. You will not want to miss that next year! You can start building excitement about that with your students and colleagues now!
Wanna come be selfish with us?
Finally, the SLCAGO Board is grateful to all of you who volunteer in the chapter. We are a volunteer organization, from the Dean on down. Everything is volunteer hours. There are lots of ways that you can volunteer as little as an hour or two to help with an event every now and then. In fact, there is a great need for that in our chapter.
Please don’t be intimidated. We are willing to accept an hour or two, and not harass you for more! I did no volunteering in the chapter before assuming the Sub-Dean role. Since then, I figured out that volunteering is the best way to meet chapter members and to make those contacts with other organists. In that sense, volunteering is selfish! Some come be selfish with us!
God bless you all for what you do for our community. You inspire, you lead, you teach. Thank you for including SLCAGO in what you do so that we all can enjoy what you are doing, learn from each other and, hopefully, increase the good things you do.