Music video: Choirs staying in tune through the pandemic
Despite being hit hard by restrictions on mass gatherings, singing enthusiasts have found a way to come together and make their voices heard through Zoom calls and ‘sofa sessions’, writes Amy O’Connor
At the end of last year, things couldn’t have been going any better for Róisín Savage. The musical director was busy running two enormously popular Dublin-based choirs — The Line Up Choir and Casual Choir — and was excited to see what was in store for both groups in 2020. “I thought it was going to be a very exciting year for me,” she says. “I was really excited about my groups growing and getting more people signing, and then the virus hit and everything changed.”
Neither choir has been able to meet since March due to restrictions and the ban on mass gatherings. As a result, Savage has had to move all choral activity to the online sphere. In-person rehearsals have been replaced by Zoom rehearsals, while live performances have been replaced by “sofa sessions” whereby members of her choirs submit videos of themselves singing for her to mix and edit together.
In one such video, choir members sent videos of themselves singing One by U2. The footage was then mixed together and cut into a five-minute video. It ended up being shared by U2 on Twitter. Since then, she has made several similar videos.
“It’s so uplifting when I get all these individual recordings from my choir members and I get to piece the puzzle together and try to replicate that sound,” she says. “It’s amazing how the voices can still sound like we’re there in one room when the fact is we’re spread out all over the country.”
She acknowledges that it’s no substitute for the real thing, but says her goal has been to keep the choir going and provide her members with a creative outlet.
“If I wanted my business to keep on going and have any type of business whatsoever, I had to at least try,” she says. “I am so lucky that my choir members who have stayed with me are so supportive. They realise the importance of the arts. It’s going to be an uphill battle and we have no idea when we’re going to be able to sing together in person. That’s the truth.
“Things are changing on a weekly basis. We thought at the end of the summer that we’d be able to come back in person at the end of September. Even a few weeks ago, I would have thought things were looking positive. But with the numbers at the moment, who is to know?”
In Ireland, it is estimated that over 239,000 people take part in choirs and group singing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many of these groups have been unable to meet in person. It remains unclear when normal activity might be able to resume.
“The singing community has been fairly severely hit by Covid19,” says Dermot O’Callaghan, CEO of Sing Ireland. In particular, he says that those in marginalised communities or those who have been isolated have missed out on being able to sing in a choir.
“You get those social benefits, the health and well-being benefits from singing,” he says. “You miss that when you can’t do it.”
This week, Sing Ireland is celebrating National Singing Week in conjunction with Mental Health Ireland. Over the course of the week, they will post virtual choir recordings and remind people of the power of singing.
“We’re encouraging singing and celebrating singing because regardless of whether you can get together, there are such well-being benefits associated with singing that you get even if you’re not singing in a group,” says O’Callaghan. “You get that rush of endorphins, so we’re encouraging people to continue that even if it’s online or distanced.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was deemed that singing was potentially a high-risk activity. Internationally, there were a number of outbreaks associated with choirs. In Washington, one person attended a choir rehearsal while experiencing flu-like symptoms. The rehearsal was attended by 61 people — 53 ended up testing positive for Covid19 and two died. In the months since, there has been a great deal of research undertaken into how safe singing is and what measures can be taken to minimise the risk of contracting Covid-19.
“We’re looking at the ways aerosols and droplets spread in a room ordinarily and we’re trying to advise on ways to safely sing,” says O’Callaghan. “We’re not advocating that people sing if it’s unsafe to do so, but we’re also now coming to a place where we know what risk mitigation strategy needs to be taken to make singing possible.”
Under Level 3 restrictions, Sing Ireland does not advise group singing to take place in person. Under Level 2, however, O’Callaghan says it can go ahead once social distancing measures are implemented and rehearsal spaces are well ventilated. The organisation also recommends wearing masks while singing.
“We’re not underestimating the difficulty of doing that, but we’re saying that people should wear masks when they sing in a group, whether they enjoy that experience or not,” says O’Callaghan.
John Doyle is a musical director involved with several choirs in Dublin, including Dun Laoghaire Choral Society, Encore Voices Dublin and Cantairí Avondale. Like many other choir leaders, he has continued to conduct rehearsals on Zoom. He has also used this unexpected downtime to help his singers develop body awareness, breathing technique and tone technique, all things they may not have time to look at normally.
Before Level 3 restrictions were implemented in Dublin, he also held “hybrid rehearsals” whereby 12 choir members would come together in a theatre space, while the rest tuned in and rehearsed via Zoom. Those in person stood three metres apart and wore PPE throughout. After 40 minutes, they exited the space to allow new air to circulate. It was far from business as usual, but a reasonably good substitute.
“It’s a case of examining what’s possible at the moment rather than trying to shoehorn what we used to do into a model that doesn’t really fit,” he says.
Doyle says this year has reminded him of the importance of choirs to communities around Ireland.
“I very much feel that my responsibility as
musical director is as much to do with the esprit de corps of each group and the sense of community, and keeping that sense of cohesion in the community as much as it’s to do with music,” he says.
“One of the things that has been really notable in its absence in terms of messaging is how important community arts groups are to the overall well-being of the people who engage with them.
“There are people in each of those choirs who live on their own and are maybe in a demographic where they were vulnerable, so their contact with the choir was the only contact they were having with people during that period.”
During the summer, he held a “musical book club” where he would send out a piece of music from off the beaten track to his singers. Not only was it educational, but it was also a way for those who were isolated to connect.
“Then one evening, we would all meet and just spend an hour listening to it, talking about it, giving our opinions on it,” he says. “People wanted to be in touch with one another.
“While we all appreciate the tyranny of the screen in front of us is no substitute for being in a room with people and things happening in real time, it’s certainly better than nothing. There’s no question about that.”
‘There are people in each of those choirs who live on their own and are maybe in a demographic where they were vulnerable, so their contact with the choir was the only contact they were having with people during that period’