UK music academies introduce restrictions

UK music academies introduce restrictions

Uncategorized

norman lebrecht

March 16, 2020

The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester issued this message last night:

Following the developing situation around COVID-19 and to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our community, the RNCM is moving to online teaching only with immediate effect. All scheduled assessments and examinations are postponed until further notice.

All events at the RNCM are postponed from Monday 16 March and box office sales (online, by phone and in person) are suspended with immediate effect. Where reinstatement of the performance at a later date is not possible, or if patrons are unable to make a rescheduled date, a full refund will be issued when services are resumed.

Staff and students should check Moodle, the Intranet and their College email accounts regularly and audiences should visit the RNCM website and social media channels for further updates.

The Royal Academy of Music posts:

As of today, the Academy has taken the decision to suspend all performance activity for the remainder of the term. The COVID-19 situation is developing rapidly, and our priority is to ensure the wellbeing of students, staff and our community, which is why we are taking these steps.

Comments

  • Nutty Professor says:

    I don’t understand why colleges and universities are moving to online teaching but keeping facilities open. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Who knows what germs are lingering on library computers or on the pages of various library books. I would say you are just as likely to contract coronavirus in a library as you would in a lecture theatre. It is a totally bizarre decision and I can’t comprehend it.

    • Tim says:

      It’s so they don’t have to pay refunds.

      They’d go broke if they had to issue mass refunds, so have all adopted the online teaching route.

    • Mike Schachter says:

      It’s not the lecture theatres that are the problem, nor as far as anyone knows the libraries. It is the crowds of students mingling before and after lectures and other teaching.

    • Saxon Broken says:

      The library and other facilities are being kept open since many students live on campus and can’t leave to “go home”. They would be out on the street if the facilities were closed. The numbers are quite small.

      It is pretty easy to maintain “social distancing” in the library, especially for the relatively small number of students remaining on campus. Having large numbers of students crammed into lecture rooms, on the other hand, makes it impossible to maintain “social distancing” (e.g. stay two metres apart).

  • Philip says:

    RCS in Scotland has posted too.

  • Gergely says:

    On the RAM homepage:

    “As of today, the Academy has taken the decision to suspend all performance activity for the remainder of the term. The COVID-19 situation is developing rapidly, and our priority is to ensure the wellbeing of students, staff and our community, which is why we are taking these steps.“

  • clarrieu says:

    What does take them so long? From today all conservatories here in France are closed, until further notice.

  • MOST READ TODAY: