With the constantly changing health situation in BC and Canada, RDYO board of directors and staff have made the decision to cancel rehearsals for all ensembles until further notice. Our concern right now is the safety and health of our musicians and families, and although our ensembles fall within the current group guidelines, we are following the school districts and City of Richmond in their closures as well. In line with BC’s ban on gatherings of more than 50 people, we are also cancelling our April and May concerts. We recognize how disappointing this will be to our musicians, our conductors, and all our families. 

Our president, Sarah, emailed families on Monday, March 16th with an update, and it has come to my attention that not all families received this email. As the situation continues to change, we will send at least weekly emails to maintain communication with our families. I am looking into the issue with our email lists, but please check our website for up to date information as well (under the MyRDYO tabs). 

Regarding our annual Scholarship Competition, we are planning to go forward with it in an online format! I will be sending out instructions regarding making a video audition, and how to upload it, as well as the required excerpts by Monday, March 23. We look forward to this new format, and being able to connect with our musicians in this way. Our conductors are also working on other ideas for connecting online while maintaining our social distance. Stay tuned!

Decisions about our end of season plans and final concert will be announced as soon as we can. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding anything in this email, or something I haven’t addressed, please do not hesitate to contact Robert at admin@rdyo.ca or Nadia at manager@rdyo.ca.