Choir in the Time of COVID

By: Clara Pressey

Music is incredibly important. It provides us with joy, love, purpose, and access to our own humanity. Unfortunately, it’s taken a major hit during the pandemic. People can’t go to concerts for the time being, and communities within the music world have had to find new ways to survive and thrive. In the same way, music as it is taught in schools has had to change drastically.

This past week, I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with the choir and theatre director at my own school, Ms. Andria Hall, and ask her a few questions about teaching choir during these strange and unusual times. It should be noted that my school is operating within a hybrid system; one group of students comes in one day, the other comes in the next, and a fair portion of the students have chosen to stay at home entirely.

How have you had to adapt the way you teach choir to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Well, we can’t sing anymore as much as I’d like to. So we’re really just working on the fundamental music skills in order to be good musicians.

What’s been the most difficult part about teaching in the pandemic both as a choir teacher and generally as a teacher?

Not seeing my students at the beginning of COVID was really hard, and not finishing the year was really hard, too – not having that closure. Then, again, just not singing. It’s been difficult.

If the pandemic doesn’t resolve soon, what do you see as the fate of choir and the performing arts?

I think the performing arts will always find a way. They say in the theatre world that the show must go on. So, whether that’s virtually—we’ll do virtual concerts. It’ll find a way. It’ll be different, but I think virtual concerts are probably our future.

Choir obviously has a higher risk than classes like orchestra and band, but have you had to do anything to coordinate with the teachers of those classes?

Not really, other than locations. Like, choir sings outside, we need to make sure we’re not near band, so it’s not distracting. So, other than locations, I haven’t had to do much coordination with them.

A big part of the beauty of choir as a discipline is that it ties together a group of people with music and a common goal. What are some ways that you think the same effect can be achieved when it’s difficult for people to sing as a group?

I think our common goal eventually is to be able to sing together again. So, right now, each of us just working on our own musicianship and understanding music as it’s written and heard rather than performed is our common goal in order to get to the performance stage and be able to do justice to what the performance deserves.

From our interview, one thing is crystal clear. The music world is facing changes at all levels—especially education. However, there are wonderful teachers in the world who are willing to make those changes and continue to bring the joy of music to students in whatever way they can. So, in the end, the lesson is: persevere.

(and go thank your choir teacher)