All together now: virtual choirs thrive amid lockdown
Concerts and choir practice may be off the table during lockdown, but in the face of isolation and adversity people are turning to the power of song more than ever and virtual choirs are flourishing online.
More than 1,000 NHS staff members across the country have joined the online NHS Chorus-19 to boost their wellbeing and connect with others.
Schools have been running singing assemblies for pupils stuck at home, while online community choirs have enabled residents young and old to stay connected. In Essex, a 150-strong virtual choir has raised more than £26,000 for the NHS, while a “couch choir” initiated in Australia has brought together more than 6,000 strangers from 45 countries.
Anna Lapwood, the conductor of Pembroke College chapel choir in Cambridge, never expected NHS Chorus-19 to become so popular when two of her members suggested setting something up for NHS staff to boost morale. Within 24 hours 300 people had signed up.
She leads the sessions via Facebook live from her flat each week, with vocal exercises, song rehearsal and time to chat.
“It’s a little bit disconcerting for me because I can’t hear anyone else, but what’s lovely is people can comment along in real time, and so you develop a sense of who they are and it does almost feel like a real choir practice,” she said. Their first project was a version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and now they’re moving on to a Covid rewriting of Come On Eileen.
For NHS staff under strain during the Covid-19 crisis, the choir has become a welcome relief. “It’s been around 11 years since I was last in a choir,” said Caroline Phillips, an anaesthetic registrar. “At first I did find singing alone a bit peculiar, but it’s actually been really freeing. You can just enjoy the music, enjoy singing and also enjoy being part of the community.”
Another choir member, Ellie Walder, a junior doctor, has been working on a Covid-19 ward over the past few weeks, the toughest challenge she’s faced since she started her job last year. “It’s so nice to just take some time for myself, do something that is not part of work, just for fun,” she said.
“We’ve all had roles in this pandemic so to know that other people are going through the same thing and we’re all singing together is really nice.”
Many of the members have experienced stress and trauma from their work over the past few months, something that Lapwood has had to keep in mind when coordinating the sessions. “You sort of act a bit like a counsellor as well, your role suddenly changes and you just have to support those people as best as possible,” she said. “It’s been pretty hard-hitting at times, but it really has illuminated quite how much music can do.”
Hull NHS choir, founded in 2014, changed its monthly rehearsals to weekly online sessions during lockdown as it decided people would need the choir more.
“I don’t think people expected to enjoy online rehearsals, but it’s quite freeing to be able to just sing with nobody judging you. And it gives people a sense of accomplishment,” said Lucy Vere, the head of organisation development at Hull University teaching hospitals and a co-founder of the choir.
“The social aspect of work has really gone because of social distancing and I think we’re able to recreate the solidarity you have with your colleagues in that 45 minutes.”
Singing is such an effective mood booster as it triggers the endorphin system in the brain, “suppressing pain but also give you an opiate high which makes you feel very relaxed and at peace with the world,” said Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford.
“Endorphins are the main mechanism for social bonding in primates generally and we found all sorts of ways of triggering it so that we can bond with each other. If you want to make friends, singing is the best way to do it.”
He said while singing online is no substitute for the physical presence of communal singing, it was an effective “temporary sticking plaster”.
The virtual choirs can only pull together their voices through videos for now, but once the crisis is over they look forward to singing in the same room again.
“To hear the songs we’ve been learning sung together as a proper choir will be really quite wonderful,” said Phillips.