in the days of omicron

The holidays are over, and we're transitioning back into the regular concert season. What effect is the omicron wave having on scheduling? The answers are all over the map.

Stanford University is cancelling all public events for January. This isn't out of character for them, as they've been tending towards complete shutdown throughout the pandemic. This includes ensembles like the New Century Chamber Orchestra, who play a program over a week at assorted venues throughout the area, and are now taken off guard by having one of them cancelled. I had been planning on reviewing that one, so I guess it's out.
Stanford is, however, still openly advertising concerts in February.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music is closing its concerts to outside visitors, limiting in-person attendance to members of the Conservatory community. However, they're promising to livestream all the events that they weren't already planning to do that way. That's OK; I was already planning to watch a lot of their programs online anyway.

San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Performances (a chamber music promoter up the street), both of which I have subscriptions to, are updating their vaccination requirement to include a booster. No problem for me, because I've been boosted since November, but I'm skeptical of the efficacy of this. Should I skip out on MTT doing Shostakovich's Fifth in two weeks? How about Mahler's First (the only Mahler symphony I really like) the week after that? Or will they have changed their minds by then and cancel the whole thing?

Kohl Mansion is holding on to their previous vaccination/mask requirement and is socially distancing seating by holding the hall to 60% capacity, which I think they were doing already. I wasn't planning on going there until March, so we'll see how things are then. I don't think I'll substitute their January concert for my NCCO review.