2020 Season Update

Dear BCI community,

Thank you for your patience and trust over the past few weeks as we have worked to understand the national and international scope of the COVID-19 crisis. Singing is important to all of us and through this period we had explored a number of potential scenarios for this summer, but ultimately this is an announcement that we had hoped we wouldn’t need to make. The Board of Trustees and staff of BCI have decided that we must cancel our entire summer 2020 schedule. This encompasses our weeks in Lenox, Boston, Amsterdam, and Barcelona.

I think the reasons are obvious but the trajectory of this crisis is still unclear. We asked ourselves if we could provide the high quality musical experiences you expect and do so while ensuring the reasonable safety of our singers, staff and artists. In addition to the potential health impacts, the unpredictability of travel, venue availability, and social distancing policies created an insurmountable challenge. Bringing people together to sing is what we do and we are deeply disappointed to make this cancellation.

As previously announced, BCI will refund any tuitions that have been paid in full or in part. 2020 choristers have been contacted individually with further information. The cancellation of our season is rocking BCI to its core. Tuitions make up about 90% of our annual revenue. In addition to our ongoing operating costs, we are contractually obligated to pay many expenses which are not currently subject to force majeure provisions.  Our current losses for 2020 are estimated to be around $1.1 million.

BCI will survive this immediate crisis because leadership over the years smartly created a financial reserve that can absorb this impact. But this enormous loss plus market declines in our endowment will significantly strain our financial well-being and our future-focused efforts to ensure that BCI will evolve to serve the next generation of amateur choral singers.

We have created an Emergency Recovery Fund to help BCI stay focused on the future. Donations to this fund will help us plan the 2021 and 2022 seasons and continue our innovative outreach efforts to bring new singers into the BCI family. In addition, we understand how independent singers and artists are impacted right now by concert and event cancellations so we have committed to pay our 2020 faculty and artists a portion of the fees they would have earned with us this summer as an investment in the future of the field. 2020 choristers are asked to consider donating a portion of their tuition back to our Emergency Recovery Fund. We invite everyone in the BCI family to consider a tax deductible gift at this challenging time. Donations can mailed to our address listed at the bottom of this page or made online at http://developer.island-wizards.com/donate. We can help make sure that the power of singing together thrives once this crisis abates.

We pledge to keep you informed of how we are doing over the coming weeks and months. Once we navigate the avalanche of cancellation logistics, we will create some online resources and links to help us continue to sing and learn and keep in touch with each other through this challenging time. Our staff will continue the work we were doing to plan our 2021 season. On behalf of everyone on our team and on the Board of Trustees, thank you for being part of our BCI singing family. Please stay home (for now), stay healthy, and stay focused on how joyful it will be when we can sing together again.

Steve Smith,

President, Berkshire Choral International