Thursday, January 13, 2022

Event Rescheduling in Response to Omicron:
A Message from President & CEO Jenny Bilfield

It’s with sincere regret—but also with determination that “the show must go on”—that I’m writing to announce that the next three performances in the Washington Performing Arts 2021/22 Season are being rescheduled at the artists’ request in light of logistics stemming from the coronavirus Omicron variant. Here are the schedule details in brief, with links to our individual event pages for more information:

• Living the Dream…Singing the Dream: Original Date: January 30, 2022. Rescheduled Date: April 10, 2022
• Sphinx Symphony Orchestra: Original Date: February 1, 2022. Rescheduled Date: January 31, 2023 (as part of the 2022/23 Season; ticket sales for this event will begin at a later date, TBA)
• Hazel Scott 101st Birthday Celebration with the U.S. Air Force Band, Michelle Cann, and others: Original Date: February 5, 2022. New Format: Pre-recorded virtual presentation; webstream premieres Wednesday, February 16, 7PM EST (URL TBA)

Please note that we are directly contacting all current ticket holders to the above three performances.

All other 2021/22 Season performances, beginning with Syncopated Ladies at the Lincoln Theatre on February 20, are still scheduled to take place as planned.

As to the rationale behind rescheduling—or, for the Hazel Scott celebration, transforming—these events: Although we and our partner venues remain “open for business,” with COVID Safety Policies in place to provide as safe an experience as possible for patrons, staff, and performing artists, the rise in recent weeks of the Omicron variant, with its higher overall level of transmissibility, has changed the equation for safely presenting some events at this time. Put briefly:

• The three events noted above all feature a large number of performing artists on stage at once, in close proximity to one another;
• Each performance requires multiple extended rehearsals, also with artists in close proximity;
• COVID testing resources in the region are in short supply; and
• In one case (Sphinx), artists would be traveling to D.C. from multiple locations around the country, adding to the cumulative risk of exposure. (The Sphinx Organization has similarly canceled its scheduled January concert with the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan.)

For these reasons, we have come to the joint decision with our artist partners and (for two of the events) our co-presenters to postpone the performances, out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of the artists’ health and safety. We are grateful that all of the artists are making it possible, one way or another, for their shows to go on at a later date.

We encourage you to join us for the rescheduled events—and for the rest of our 2021/22 Season—and thank you as always for your ongoing support of Washington Performing Arts. And, of course, we wish you and your loved ones the best of health, here in the New Year and beyond!

Sincerely,

Jenny Bilfield