COVID-19 Updates

First, we’d like to thank our teachers and staff for their diligence in keeping our studios sterile and sanitary throughout the day. We will continue to do so throughout this crisis. We wanted to send out an update on what we are doing currently and our back up options in worst case scenarios. We will keep you updated as more news unfolds.

School districts, concerts, and sports games are cancelling because the CDC is recommending large gatherings to cancel or postpone. Our studios have limited numbers of students, in one-on-one interactions, so we will not have hundreds of people in our studios at any given time.

Open or Closed?

Our schools are open for lessons and all lessons are being delivered as scheduled. Should your instructor cancel lessons for the day, they will reach out to you directly to let you know of the cancellation and will work with you on rescheduling lessons or online lessons (read on below).
Should we have the need to close down temporarily, we will send out an email blast, post on our social medias and websites, and teachers will contact you via phone and email.

We will continue to offer makeup lessons for students that cancel with 48-hour notice – notices are to be sent directly to the instructor.

What about planned events?

We are postponing the Drums 101 class at Grant Park Music originally scheduled for Saturday, March 14th. We are also postponing the Voice Over Masterclass at North Fulton Music on Saturday, March 21st. Both events will be rescheduled for later this year and we will send out notices with new dates.

The Avalon Performance is still scheduled as planned – Rehearsal on Friday, March 27th and event on March 28th; however, we will be meeting with the Avalon team mid-next week to finalize our plans. Should we decide to postpone this event, we will reach out to all participating students.

The Music Assessments are still scheduled for April 25th and 26th for Alpharetta and May 2nd for Atlanta schools. We will keep you updated on the status of this event closer to the date. We are able to do the Music Assessments online and will either postpone the entire event, go online only, or a combination of both.

What Precautions are we taking?

Since the beginning of the international transmission of the virus, we have been taking all of the recommended precautions to keep our studios sterile and sanitary throughout the lesson day.
1. We disinfect all piano keys, door knobs, table surfaces, light switches, faucets, and other surfaces that are touched.
2. We spray disinfectant aerosols
3. We are adding air scrubbers/purifiers to keep the air sterile
4. We require students to wash hands and use hand sanitizer before each lesson.
5. We are encouraging parents to drop off their student and hang out outside (while the weather is warm) or in their cars during the duration of the lesson. This is not mandatory but it helps minimize person-to-person contact.
6. Any students or teachers feeling ill should stay home and get rest and notify us if tested positive.

Worst Case-Scenarios

Should we have the need to temporarily close the school due to someone contracting the virus or a state-wide lockdown, we will send out notices to all students via email, teachers will directly touch base, and we will update our social medias and website with the notices. Students will be able to take their lessons online so as to not disrupt the education and accrue makeup sessions.

Online-Lessons

Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, we have been working behind the scenes on our online-music-lessons model. Given the current state of affairs, this would be a great time for us to roll out this program. While we are still open, we recommend students to continue having their lessons in-person at our studios. However, we will be offering online-lessons for those that do not wish to come in for their lesson but these must be pre-arranged with your individual instructor. No notice or insufficient notices will continue to be marked as no-shows and will not be eligible for makeups. We ask for everyone’s patience over the next couple of weeks as we train our instructors on online-lessons. Some teachers are already conducting online-lessons while others will be doing so within the next couple of weeks. You can check with your teacher to see your options. For now, make sure to give a 48-hour notice to your teacher if you want to cancel your in-person lesson and they will work with you on rescheduling makeups either later in person or via online lessons.

With online lessons, students will need a compatible device that has video chat applications installed. Younger students may need assistant from a parent or older sibling. While many of our teachers and students have iphones capable of FaceTime, we also recommend everyone to download WhatsApp and Skype as they are compatible across most platforms. We also recommend purchasing a smart-phone stand to help position the camera for the lesson, these can be purchased online through retailers like Amazon. Please note that ipads would work from apple to apple platforms but they are not compatible with WhatsApp video.

We will get through this..

We appreciate everyone’s understanding and accommodations as we all endure this international crisis. We must all stay calm, proactive, and practice living a healthy life.

 
-Sadi Rahman
Owner/Director, North Fulton School of Music