A concert scheduled for this weekend in Northampton, Massachusetts, from a chorus made up of elderly singers, has been canceled due to several cases of COVID.
Young@Heart is internationally known for performing music not commonly sung by people their age, including covers of songs from David Bowie, Gloria Gaynor and The Clash.
Saturday night’s scheduled performance at the Academy of Music was already a rescheduled event, postponed since 2020, said Bob Cilman, Young@Heart’s manager and conductor.
“This time we felt, 'Oh, you know, we're there, we're one week away!''” Cilman said.
Cilman said the group has been rehearsing together, with masks on, since February. The news that three singers tested positive for COVID came in over the weekend and earlier this week.
Cilman said it’s unlikely it spread in rehearsals.
Members of the chorus met on Zoom and agreed to postpone the concert. With this variant of the virus spreading so easily, Cilman said it was a unanimous decision.
“We now have seven people in their 90s, so we're incredibly careful about the situations we're willing to put them in,” Cilman said.
The concert has been rescheduled for June 9. They'll wait and see, Cilman said, if the chorus will sing with masks.
