Bethel Pre­sents Fall Con­certs Out­side to Pre­vent Spread of COVID-19 

MISHAWAKA-- As Bethel seeks to cre­ate a com­mu­nity at­mos­phere that fol­lows COVID-19 safety pro­to­cols, it has been forced to reeval­u­ate and re­struc­ture some of its yearly tra­di­tions, in­clud­ing the fall con­certs. This year, all the con­certs will still be hap­pen­ing, but they will be tak­ing place out­side and fol­low­ing so­cial dis­tanc­ing and mask-wear­ing guide­lines. 

The event is open to the Bethel com­mu­nity and to the pub­lic, but the Mu­sic De­part­ment is re­quest­ing in­di­vid­u­als not to at­tend if they have ex­pe­ri­enced any symp­toms within 24 hours prior to the per­for­mances. Ad­di­tion­ally, the de­part­ment is ask­ing con­cert-go­ers to bring their own blan­kets, chairs and any­thing else they will need dur­ing the con­cert. 

The con­certs be­gin on Fri­day, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m. with the Fall Choral Con­cert, fea­tur­ing the Bethel Uni­ver­sity Con­cert Choir, which will be ac­com­pa­nied by the Bethel Uni­ver­sity Cham­ber Or­ches­tra for some of its pieces. Voices of Tri­umph, Bethel's a cap­pella en­sem­ble, will also be per­form­ing, as will Spirit in Mo­tion, Bethel's dance troupe. The con­cert will take place around the ponds near the Din­ing Com­mons. 

The fol­low­ing Mon­day, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m., the Fall Or­ches­tra Con­cert will take place and will fea­ture a va­ri­ety of or­ches­tral pieces. The ex­act lo­ca­tion is still to be de­ter­mined, but the cur­rent plan is for the in­stru­men­tal­ists to cre­ate an arc around Re­flec­tion Pond. 

On Tues­day, Oct. 27, at 6 p.m., the Fall Per­cus­sion En­sem­ble Con­cert will take place on the pa­tio by Re­flec­tion Pond. 

Kelli Grosse, mu­sic ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant, said the Mu­sic De­part­ment will be en­sur­ing health reg­u­la­tions are fol­lowed. 

"Hav­ing the con­certs out­side is one of our big steps to main­tain­ing COVID pro­ce­dures and guide­lines from the CDC and the Bethel ad­min­is­tra­tion," Grosse said. 

Grosse said the Mu­sic De­part­ment is go­ing above and be­yond to make at­ten­dees feel as safe and as wel­come as pos­si­ble. 

"We will have printed con­cert pro­grams avail­able if peo­ple want to ref­er­ence them, but we are also plan­ning to make the pro­grams dig­i­tal for peo­ple to ac­cess on­line as well if they would pre­fer to just look it up on their phones," Grosse said. 

Be­cause in­clement weather is al­ways a threat when out­side events are in­volved, rain dates are al­ready se­lected for each con­cert and the de­part­ment will an­nounce those dates if that be­comes nec­es­sary.  

Grosse said per­form­ing out­doors comes with other chal­lenges as well and that vi­sual com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the di­rec­tor is even more im­por­tant than usual to en­sure all the per­form­ers stay on the same beat. 

"[Per­form­ing out­side] is very dif­fer­ent," Grosse said. "From a per­for­mance per­spec­tive, some­times be­ing able to hear the peo­ple around you changes... it takes a lot of ef­fort to make sure that you're still be­ing able to hear every­one." 

Grosse said that, de­spite all the dif­fi­cul­ties that come with pur­su­ing a pas­sion for mu­sic per­for­mance amidst a pan­demic, she is thank­ful they are able to con­tinue do­ing so.  

"In all this time ad­just­ing to COVID, the per­form­ing arts have made huge ad­just­ments and sac­ri­fices," Grosse said. "But we are hon­ored and grate­ful to still be able to per­form, even if it's in a lim­ited ca­pac­ity."