As an eighty-strong choir cannot legally meet up while pandemic rules apply, much less hold live concerts with even more people massing, Choral Connections have decided to go completely virtual this season. Members rehearse the winter repertoire at home, using practice videos created during the summer months, where singers can watch Ingrid conduct, and hear Vincent play the accompaniment, while hearing singers sing the song. This way, you can sing along with others again. Singers can choose between hearing their section emphasized, or all voices.We meet up weekly on Tuesday nights for a one-hour video conference, where Ingrid and Vincent lead us in vocal exercises and warm-ups, we work on the new songs and exchange news. Members can chat with friends, and ask questions, and we can finally meet as a choir once more.In order to be able to present a winter concert for our friends this Christmas season, all our singers are challenged to record their voices at home, singing the songs while listening to the master tracks over earphones. The recordings are then submitted to our sound engineers Terry and Dion, who fuse them into virtual choral pieces. We have staggered submission deadlines in order to have more time to work on the songs, which takes some doing. Once the virtual choir is singing, there will be videos to go with the songs, created using pictures, videos and creative ideas submitted by the choir members. We are excited by this challenge and looking forward to sharing our first-ever virtual concert with you.Old musical friends of ours have been invited to join the Virtual Choral Connections to add their voices, which is a great opportunity the virtual approach creates. We have added a dozen singers to our ranks, as far away as the coast of Nova Scotia and Mexico City.Singers from choirs who have been forced into musical isolation by Covid-19 are invited to check us out and get inspired. Contact Stefanie at info@choralconnections.ca for questions, or to register for an open virtual choir rehearsal on Tuesday, October 20th. Check out our entry for Culture Days to learn more about this event: https://culturedays.ca/en/events/cac26074-da33-47c1-8c81-d69de228eb73
Here is one of the “Test Videos” we created in the Spring to so we could learn what we needed to succeed with our “Virtual Season.” Nine Hundred Miles