Met Artists Newsletter Editorial: Why Another Fundraiser?
When the Metropolitan Opera closed its doors on March 12, 2020, the plan was to come back in two weeks after the smoke had cleared, so to speak. The announcement of the closure came abruptly, but not entirely unexpectedly, in the middle of a musical rehearsal of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Most choristers left things behind at their dressing room desks, certain they’d be back after a brief hiatus.
It’s safe to say that no one could have imagined the scope and destructive power the COVID-19 pandemic would have on the performing arts industry.
Give the gift of hope to your favorite Met AGMA artists this season. (Illustration by Chelsey Hill.)
Met Chorus Artists, Inc., the non-profit organization run by members of the chorus, had been in existence for four years, and was initially created to help facilitate the chorus’s desire to be more involved in the community through opera education and outreach. However, after the Met canceled the remainder of it’s 2019-2020 season, it quickly became apparent that our organization needed to step up and fill another important role: that of a fundraiser and grant-provider to hundreds of out-of-work and financially struggling Met AGMA artists. Our successful first fundraiser, which you can read all about here, raised over $500,000 from hundreds of individual donors, as well as generous assistance from Met Opera board member Graham Berwind and Met supporter Bob Doorenbos (our “angel donors”) and a $250,000 donation from the Rolex Foundation. This money went directly to the artists who applied for our Emergency Grant, and as a result, over 300 artists received funds that helped them pay their rent (or mortgage), bills, and put food on the table for their families.
We hoped that one fundraiser was all that would be necessary to assist our fellow artists and colleagues through a dark time in their lives.
But instead of improving, things got much worse.
Due to skyrocketing levels of COVID cases and the lack of a vaccine, the Metropolitan Opera canceled the entirety of its 2020-2021 season, assuring that Met artists would be out of work for a year and a half (providing our preseason rehearsals start on time in August of 2021). Government assistance has been slim-to-nonexistent, and Unemployment Insurance will run out for many of us in April of 2021, with some of our colleagues possibly losing their PUA payments (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) by the end of the year. Over 30% of the chorus have given up their apartments and homes and moved away from New York City because they can’t afford to live in an area with such a high cost-of-living without a job, to say nothing of our other Met AGMA family members who have left the NYC metro area and have scattered to all corners of the country to live with friends and family members and wait out the closure, watching their bank accounts dwindle.
We, the board of Met Chorus Artists, Inc., knew we had no choice but to raise money for our colleagues a second time. We decided to call our second campaign the Face The Music Fundraising Campaign, and there are many reasons we chose to name it this way.
Audiences have to Face the Music that they won’t be able to enjoy their favorite Metropolitan Opera performances until September of 2021 (at least, that’s the hope).
Metropolitan Opera Artists have to Face the Music that the company they love is not going to give them the support and respect they need and deserve.
Artists have to Face the Music that many government programs that are helping them stay afloat (student loan deferments, eviction moratoriums, rent assistance, mortgage forbearance programs, etc.) are set to expire at the end of the year.
Artists have to Face the Music that a vaccine roll-out will take time, and that it will be a long time before we can comfortably perform indoors again.
And we all have to Face the Music that we will not get through this pandemic without helping each other.
There was no small amount of concern that a second fundraising campaign would get lost in the shuffle of so many worthy organizations that need financial support, particularly at the end of the year. Even our friends, the Met Orchestra Musicians, have started a fundraiser to help full-time orchestra members, associate musicians, and music staff members make ends meet during the closure, and the Metropolitan Opera itself has an ongoing campaign.
But it is our hope that our beloved audience members and Met Opera supporters can see the difference they can make to the individual Met AGMA artists that have lost their homes, who have lost their livelihoods, and who continue to struggle as COVID cases rise and restrictions on indoor congregations continue to restrict our ability to perform, to do what we were trained to do, and what we love to do.
We, the artists of the Metropolitan Opera, aren’t just labor: We Are The Met. We are what brings the magic of opera to life, and until we can safely do so, we need your help.
This is why we launched our Face the Music Fundraising Campaign, and we hope you’ll join us.
