It was with great sadness that the steady stream of musical and cultural events that make our world go around ground to a halt this spring due to the spread of the COVID 19 virus. Here at Versipel New Music, we had to cancel four shows – our April visiting artists andPlay, two Versipel Collective events at Hotel Peter and Paul, and our first road show at the Sugarmill Festival in Alexandria, LA. While it is frustrating to be in a holding pattern where collective music making and creative activities have seemingly ground to a halt, we stand in solidarity that the wide scale cancellation of events was necessary to help flatten the curve of Coronovirus cases.

We’re still hoping that we will be back in our regular haunts next year presenting new and recent music with our collaborators near and far. The four cancelled concerts will be rescheduled for sometime next year, and we’ve been in the works with several other new music groups that can’t wait to visit New Orleans and be a part of our Visiting Artist Series.

As for the Collective, we received a grant from the Jazz and Heritage Foundation to present an evening of social justice infused works called “Coming Together.” Although originally planned as our season VII opener in August, it appears that this too will be pushed back (but hopefully not to far! Come on SCIENCE!).

But we’re here, and we’re making plans. Our oh-so-creative musicians of the Versipel Collective have some near term plans that we will be bringing your way sooner rather than later. So, we’ll see you soon, OK?