MADISON (WKOW) -- Wind instrument musicians could be silenced under the current Dane County Face Covering Emergency Order.
It's what's missing in this current order that has Dane County's musicians worried.
Laurie Fellenz, is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA). She told 27 News, "With the previous Emergency Order #16, there was exemption language that would allow for fabric covers and distancing of six feet, and that specific exemption language was removed from the current Order #17."
The previous mandate allowed musicians to play as long as they used a specific type of protective instrument covering called a fabric bell covering, which covers the exhaust end of a wind instrument and is designed to mitigate airflow coming out of the instrument.
Now that the more contagious Delta variant is the predominant strain, Dane County health officials won't include an exemption to allow wind instrument musicians to perform indoors and the WSMA said this exclusion could jeopardize music education for some students in Dane County.
Fellenz said, "Music is not extracurricular, it's actually part of the Every Student Succeeds Act. It's a required curriculum in our schools. So right now we have a situation where kids cannot fully participate in that curriculum."
An even bigger issue for Dane County is that many musical performances may have to be canceled.
Joe Loehnis, CEO of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, said, "If the current mandate doesn't get modified, the Chamber Orchestra won't be able to perform with the Madison Ballet coming up in September, nor will we be able to rehearse and record our first of three digital chamber series."
Loehnis said this new order could devastate an already-struggling industry. "We have contracts with the ballet that's tens of thousands of dollars with our musicians. I mean, I'm thinking about our musicians, wages, and the ability to play helps them keep working. So it's the losses could be significant."
Public Health Madison & Dane County provided the following response:
At the time when we implemented exemptions in previous orders for wind instruments, it was before the delta variant was the prevalent strain. Unfortunately, this variant is 2x more infectious than previous strains. Therefore, we are not able to create such an exemption in the current order.
Morgan Finke, Communications Coordinator PHMDC
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Current mask mandate could silence Dane County music students and performing arts - WKOW
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