Through a collection of extensive interviews with choral conductors, educators, singers, and professional leaders, this book documents the choral music community’s journey through crisis and change during the COVID-19 pandemic and aids in its rebuilding in a new era where COVID-19 is endemic.
When the pandemic emerged in early 2020, the impact on choral music was immediate and devastating, as the act of gathering and singing together became a source of contagion and potential severe illness or death. Weaving together a wide range of first-person accounts, this book addresses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on choral music across contexts including community choruses, professional choirs, children and youth choirs, school choirs, and choral organizations. In their own words, we hear how the community responded to the challenges and banded together to innovate, use technology in new ways, and generate changes to practice. The book also explores how the pandemic caused many directors to realize that they needed to create a more inclusive place of belonging in their rehearsals, and provides reflections on the philosophy of singing and creating a choral community.
Documenting both pandemic experiences and the lessons learned from surviving and thriving, this book showcases the resilience of choral music and helps point the way to new directions for the choral community in the wake of the pandemic.