Arts Community comes together to keep spirits up during COVID-19 isolation

It has been wonderful to see all the artists and arts organizations who are sharing content online to help people continue to enjoy the arts during COVID-19 self-isolation.  Here are some of the different options that we have discovered. Share more with us – email marketing@tmchoir.org – and we’ll continue to add to this list.
Share these resources with your friends and family.
 
Musicians creating together online during self-isolation
Musicians from many organizations are finding ways to join together online to create music.
CBC Music has put together a list of amazing virtual performances by Canadian musicians. Check out this list of performances.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra musicians performs Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.  Watch on Facebook.
Rotterdam Philharmonic musicians perform Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
 
Opera
Vienna State Opera is streaming operas from its archive free each day. Here’s an article with the schedule of performances.
Met Opera is streaming operas from its archive.
The Royal Opera House in London will be screening free shows on its Facebook and YouTube pages. Here’s an article with the schedule of performances.
Head over to the Canadian Opera Company‘s Facebook page for a clip of opera every day at 11 am EDT – sung from home.
 
Symphony Concerts
Detroit Symphony Orchestra has now made their collection of DSO Live streamed concerts available for free.
 
Museums and Art Galleries
Check out Google Arts and Culture for online exhibits and street view tours of some museums.
 
Theatre
Enjoy films of Stratford Festival productions of Shakespeare plays.
Enjoy performances from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC., including ballet, hip hop, jazz, classical, comedy and more.
Check out the Social Distancing Festival for links to other theatre and opera streams (some charge).
The National Theatre in London is streaming a new play every week on their YouTube Channel. Set your clocks to UK time and enjoy a new play every Thursday at 7 pm UK time (then it streams for a week).
 
Sing alongs and virtual choirs
We’ve taken some videos of our performances of popular choral works and added scrolling lyrics and downloadable scores so you can turn up the volume and sing along with us at home. Check out our seven video options on our sing along page – from Handel, Bach, Brahms and Orff to Leonard Cohen.  #Stayhomeandsing
During May, sign up to participate in Canadian Opera Company’s virtual choir of the Anvil Chorus.
Also during May, you can sign up to participate in Jordan Travis’ InstaChoir to sing O Canada for Canada Day.
 
TMC concerts
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that you can enjoy many of our concerts recorded in our webcast archive.  Visit livestream.com/tmchoir
 
Support to artists and arts organizations
Artists and arts organizations are pulling together to keep culture a part of people’s lives during isolation.  But many musicians are laid off, concerts and gigs are cancelled. They (we) will all need help getting back on our financial feet after this crisis is over. So what support programs are being developed?
If you have tickets to a cancelled performance, please consider making that ticket a donation to the organization instead of getting a refund. Thank you to all those who are in a position to be able to do this.
For choral groups, Choral Canada has put together a list of resources.
The Ontario Nonprofit Network has put together a number of resources to help non profits during this time.
Imagine Canada has also published a list of resources for Canadian non profits during Covid-19.
A guide for artists for Tracking Financial Losses due to COVID-19.