January 29th, 2020

Good Afternoon Everyone,

In light of the current labour situation, we regret to inform you that FOR THIS YEAR ONLY, we will not run the Capital Region Music Festival in traditional form. The current status of the OSSTF negotiations has made it impossible for us to move forward without putting unreasonable expectations on the finances of the festival, the volunteers, the host schools and the band directors who work so hard to support the event.

As Music Educators in Ottawa, one of our strengths is how we work to support all music programs in the city. At this time, the majority of our elementary band students and teachers are unable to participate in CRMF 2020 due to sanctions. We feel that it is important for us to be supportive of their job action while doing our best to continue to preserve a high standard of music education in the schools.

We are currently exploring an alternate format to the festival to deliver some of the essential benefits of CRMF to you and your students. We will disclose details about this modified version of CRMF to you by Friday, January 31, 2020. in addition to this, we will communicate details regarding registration refunds within the next few days.

We are confident that you will agree that our new plan is a reasonable compromise for both you and your students.

Thanks again for your support,

Stephen Szabo - Regional Coordinator

Grace Vigneron - Registrar

Kim Vrieling - Treasurer