English composer and conductor John Rutter said, “You express, when you sing, your soul in song. And when you get together with a group of other singers, it becomes more than the sum of the parts.” To accomplish this during COVID, choir directors have had to be creative.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the public found out just how easily singing could spread the virus through the experience of the Skagit Valley Chorale, one of the first superspreader events in the country. For their rehearsal on March 10, 2020, the group believed that keeping socially distant would be enough to keep members safe. But within a few weeks, 52 of the 61 people who came to the rehearsal were diagnosed with COVID-19, and two died.
An international coalition of performing arts organizations commissioned a study on the risks of in-person rehearsals. Based on the results, the group developed rehearsal safety guidance, which included wearing masks, remaining socially distanced, limiting rehearsal time, and providing ample time between rehearsals to allow the air to be cleared or rehearsing outdoors.
It seemed safest to move everything online. Schools moved to online learning, which provided additional challenges for performing arts classes. Jenn Opdahl, choir teacher at Olympian High School in Chula Vista, Calif., explained, “Students were muted, not showing video and we were not allowed to require the screen to be on. The energy, emotional connection, being part of a whole disappeared.”
Tracy Burklund, adjunct professor in the music department of Southwestern College, also in Chula Vista, said, “It’s really challenging to have more than one voice singing at the same time because of latency.” Variations in the speed and quality of the students’ devices meant the singers were not together or with the accompaniment.
One approach is to have the group mute their microphones, which is self-defeating because the instructor can’t hear the student. Burklund explains that having a single student sing is fine, but in a larger group, musicality is lost. “You lose the experience of being in choir.”
There’s no easy way for choirs to perform online. “Everybody and their dog would tell people, ‘Oh, you’re in choir? You should do a virtual choir,’ with no idea what it takes,” Opdahl said. She explained that she has the skills but not the time, and the varying quality of what comes from the students makes it a challenge. Also, it’s cost-prohibitive to contract it out—a 45-second clip could cost around $700.
Opdahl’s students did a cabaret-style performance online at the end of the last school year. Each student picked out a song, then the accompanist would record a track for them to sing along with. But that’s not choir.
Initially churches moved to online services. Many held services outdoors for months to minimize the risk. As they’ve moved indoors, safety guidelines have varied greatly, from having the choir be spaced out and all wearing masks to no precautions at all. Some churches still have not restarted singing at all.
There is still space though. “Churches did such a good job of pivoting to online services, people aren’t coming back,” Ron Bolles said. This means that it is easier for congregations to spread out for safety.
Bolles has been a choir director in public schools, churches and the community for more than 50 years. At the start of the pandemic, he was the worship and arts director at La Jolla Presbyterian Church and director of the San Diego Street Choir.
The San Diego Street Choir stopped all rehearsals for more than a year. First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, where they rehearse, refused to mandate masks, but the choir leadership required them. “If someone came in without a mask, we’d slap one on. They did it. They hated it. We all hated it,” Bolles explained.
Burklund is co-vocal music director for Southwestern’s production of the musical “The Addams Family.” She said that with the current surge in the area, the school wanted to move everything back online. Her response was to limit the size of the cast, split them into groups to rehearse separately and do rapid testing prior to rehearsals.
Even with these precautions, students are still masked and distanced. “It’s difficult for me to hear the students when they’re so far away and muffled,” Burklund explained.
Opdahl described another problem with masks: “If you drop your jaw open to get space to sing, the mask moves and doesn’t cover the mouth.” In addition, “I can’t see their technique, but at least I can hear them. I also can’t demonstrate.”
Almost two years into the pandemic, many choirs are striving to get back to actually singing together. With the emerging variants, there’s no way to know when that might happen.
