Members Info

I hope everyone is staying safe and finding a way to stay connected. Here’s an update re our MCB future events.

 

Sharon received notice that Cornell has deleted our scheduled June rehearsals from the books. While the government hasn’t released a timeline for large group assembly, the Cornell decision isn’t shocking. If things change, we can always get the dates back.

 

Sunday, June 20, Markham Village Music Festival. The street event is cancelled. The organizers have proposed a virtual show, with performers submitting digital performances. I prepared a fifteen minute movie using four of our songs and lots of photos. If they go ahead with the project, I’ll let you know when their link is live. If not, I’ll post it on YouTube and you can see it there. See if you can guess which four tunes I used…

 

Orillia asked a few weeks ago if we could field a band for the August 9 show. We told them that we don’t know. Stay tuned.

 

Markham Fair just made the decision to cancel this year’s fair. Our gig would have been Oct. 3

 

Bottom line- the curve may be flattening, but we’re a ways off from normal MCB, I’m afraid. Hang in there.

 

 

Guaranteed to provide a smile- here’s an amazingly talented singer with a great COVID-19 song parody.

 

I hope all of you are doing well and finding new ways to connect with family and friends. Markham’s community centres are “closed until further notice”, and the roll-out procedures I’ve seen suggest that it will be quite a while before large group assembly is possible. If initial group activities are limited to something smaller than our full membership, it’s possible we’ll look at running sectionals for a while. Your exec is continuing to stay in touch and doing what planning we can do.

 

There’s been interest expressed in trying some MCB virtual performances. Have a look at this video from Thornhill Community Band.

 

 

I chatted by email with Joan Sax, and the project began with individual band members listening to a percussion track while recording themselves on their phone. Extensive video editing was required to pull it all together. 

 

It’s impressive, and fun to do once, but it doesn’t replace the experience of an in-person rehearsal or performance. As far as we can determine, the technology to let us rehearse as a group doesn’t exist. I’d love to be proven wrong, though, so if anyone has a solution, let me know!

Greetings, all. I don’t have much new information for you, but I wanted to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

Markham’s community centres (and most other things) are closed “until further notice”. The Theatre has told us they are closed until May 31st at the earliest, so it’s possible the community centres are on that same potential schedule, but we don’t know for sure.. If so, the earliest we’d have a rehearsal is June 1st, and I wouldn’t bet on that. Whenever the exec has more information, we will share it with you.

The May concert is of course cancelled, and by now everyone with tickets to that show should have been contacted by the box office to receive a refund or to donate their ticket price to MCB. If that didn’t happen, please let me know. (I’ve been asked whether we are still being charged by the Theatre for the May show. We are not.)

We are working with the Theatre to finalize our 2020/21 season and our mailing materials, but we will not be sending those out or making tickets available for now. Once the restrictions are beginning to lift, we’ll make a decision on when to start ticket sales, as it seems unlikely people are in a “buy tickets for a concert series” mood right now.

Markham Village Music Festival (June 20th) has not yet been cancelled, and again we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything. Ditto for August 9th’s Orillia gig.

I think that’s everything you might want to know about MCB at the moment. If you have additional questions, reply to this email. I hope you are all well and safe and not annoying your neighbours too much with your practicing. 🙂

Message from Doug – April 13th

The flashback from Dec. 2019 is posted. Enjoy.

 

 

Maps for our Shows

Click ‘view larger map’ on a particular map to go to a full-sized one where you can also get directions to the concert.

Flato Markham Theatre


Markham Fair


Markham Village Festival (Main St Markham and Robinson)

Orillia Aqua Theatre

RAIN LOCATION for Orillia

Details in the event of rain for Orillia

Doors to the Opera House will only be open at 5:30pm for load in. Band members can enter via the elevator entrance or front door. The elevator entrance is through the double doors – with windows – toward the back of the Opera House, directly across from the Library entrance in the parking lot.

From the elevator, the stage is on the 3rd floor. From the front entrance or ground floor, the stage is on the 1st floor (meaning up the stairs and through the double doors).

Unionville Millennium Bandstand

Click ‘view larger map’ on a particular map to go to a full-sized one where you can also get directions to the concert.

Suggestion Box (from Heather – June 19, 2019)

Many of you have given the exec ideas and suggestions, which is great. It’s often hard for us to keep track, though, especially when they’re given at rehearsals and we don’t have a chance to write them down.