Choir Department Unsure About Upcoming Choir Concert

The choir department will not be able to host their normal Christmas concert but there are other ideas that the choir directors have been considering including a recording, virtual concert, and a CD.

There is no set plan for what will be in place this year, but the choir directors do have some ideas. There are a lot of deciding factors, such as how much of the choir is available to sing, so they are keeping their options open.

One option being considered is recording some songs. This option they had already done for their October concert. If there are a lot of students quarantined or virtual the recording process can be made a lot harder.

“We had a huge influx of quarantined students the week we had planned to record our October concert,” choir director Emily Schuhmacher said.

The plan would be to record in person students singing and then they would be able to share with their families.

“In my opinion, the best way for us to do a concert this year would be to do a virtual concert,” senior Jada Erickson said. She is a part of Concert Choir and has been a part of the choir program all four years.

Another option they are considering is to get all four choirs together in the small gym during resource to record, socially distanced. This way everyone can come together and sing the normal pieces that all four choirs would sing. For this type of concert they would plan to record it as well.

“We have talked about doing a small scale like virtual choir type of experience for some of our ensembles,” Schuhmacher said.

With that they are a little hesitant because there would be a lot of editing involved.

Creating a CD is another idea that they have thought of. Every choir ensemble would sing one or two selections and they would all be put together on CDs. However, this option also depends on how many students are in the building verses at home so they can record. When Schuhmacher tried to record the October concert for one of her classes, there were only two alto students in the building.

“That made it really challenging in October and we are just trying to avoid situations like that in December and have alternate plans that we can still do some kind of performance.” Schuhmacher said.

Schumacher also mentioned that they have talked about contacting nursing homes to do some sort of virtual caroling. This would be an option that would involve the virtual students because they can join the call as well.

One of the harder parts of all these options is being able to share the concert with the public. More than just the students' families come to these concerts each year.

“The most challenging thing this year with the Christmas concert is not giving everyone in the public the opportunity to listen to us.” junior Sophia Gerhing said. She has done choir all three of her years.