TCATS #336 - What the News Headlines Say

In my daily perusal of the news, I often keep my eye open for coronavirus stories related to choirs. Along with wanting to stay educated on how this pandemic has affected choral groups around the world, I am also interested in knowing when it will be safe to hope again. 

If you were to do a Google search with the keywords "coronavirus choirs", you'd see these headlines:

• When Will it Be Safe to Sing Again? (NY Times)
• How Coronavirus Spread from One Member to 87% of the Singers at a Washington Choir Practice (CNN)
• Two Years Until We Have a Live Choir? (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• The  Pandemic Shut Down Choirs. We're Finding New Ways to Sing Together (Washington Post)
• Scientists to Choirs: Group Singing Can Spread Cornavirus (LA Times)
• When and How Can Choirs Sing Again Without Becoming "Superspreaders" (ABC News)
• Paging Dr. Hamblin: When Will it Be Safe To Sing Together? (The Atlantic)
• COVID-19 Creates Grim Outlook for Choirs Singing in Group (KTUU News)
• Church-goers Aren't Able to Lift Every Voice and Sing During the Pandemic (The Conversation US)
• Superspreader Events (like Choir Singing) May be Responsible for 80% of COVID Infections (Voice of America)
• German Choirs Go Silent As Singing Branded Virus Risk

Hmmmm...Probably not safe to hope, yet.

Unlike the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, some members of other choirs and orchestras face losing their jobs over not being able to sing and play together for audiences and as such, are deciding to go the virtual route--for now. The choral group Albany Pro Musica, for example, decided to do just that for their upcoming performance season. In reading through the article, I thought the following paragraphs helped put in perspective some of the considerations regarding choral singing in this present reality:

"Among [the sobering facts] is the description of singers as “super spreaders” likely to transmit the virus well past the reach of normal social distancing. As PAMA president Dr. Lucinda Halsteadone phrased it: "You would need a football stadium to space apart the Westminster Choir [which only has 40 members].” 

“Our deep breathing and loud sound produced during a rehearsal projects disease particles into the air at a significantly higher rate than talking,” explains a post addressing the summit on barbershop.org. “This is why we keep hearing horror stories of entire choirs falling ill from one rehearsal. . . . Even if 6 feet of physical distance is observed, singing mitigates that by filling a room with virus particles quickly.”

"For the virtual season, [director of the choir] Flores-Caraballo said, the chorus will weigh different configurations in different places -- perhaps with smaller groups of APM singers, as the full ensemble won't be able to gather in a close space.  'It will be a totally innovative, new concert series. . . It will not be the typical concert experience that people are used to. It will be different, and details on that is what we’ll unveil a month from now. Everything that we’re doing is in a way reinventing APM for the next year at least.  . . . The downside of all this is that there’s nothing that can compare to the energy that people feel in a live performance.' But the present reality is prompting the ensemble to explore technology in new ways, and he expects that to continue into the post-COVID future."


And I'll end today's post with the last paragraph of the article, to which I certainly can empathize with:  “This is a personal loss for everyone involved. . . . It’s huge. It’s huge. Because even when we’ll find ways to communicate virtually with our audience, we will still miss being together. Being together as a group,” he said, “and being together with our audience.” 

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #335 - It's About the Mission--Not Me

I really need to write this post--for me.
And ironically, the theme of this post is that it's really not about me. 

Over the past 80+ days, as the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has ceased normal operations, I've been on a journey. A journey filled with the process of grieving and of trying to adjust to my new no-choir reality. And I won't lie. It's been hard. I've gone through a wide range of emotions that has included sadness, disbelief, anger, resentment, and finally, a welcome bit of humility.

As I was on yet another walk the other night, I thought about all of this and I realized some things. Most notably, that singing regularly with the Tabernacle Choir isn't as needful or important as I thought it was. And that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can get along just fine without its choir members for months and even years to come if needed. The necessity of having a living, breathing, performing-every-week choir is actually not a necessity in the short term. 

Consider that the bread and butter of the choir is the weekly Music & Spoken Word (MSW) broadcasts. It's what we spend most of our time preparing for and most of our time performing. In fact, if there was a pie chart to look at that showed the breakdown of how the choir uses its time, MSW would easily be the largest slice of the pie. Why is this exactly? It's because MSW is the best way for us to fulfill our mission of sharing testimony and inspiring others by the truths we sing and the truths Lloyd Newell speaks. Every Sunday we are reminded how far and wide the net of this weekly broadcast is spread:  2000+ TV and radio stations. And these stations carry the program to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, across the world.

The other performances we do that fall into this bread and butter category are the songs we sing for the Church's General Conference twice a year. To say that the choir gets "the most bang for its buck" participating in these conferences is an understatement since, when it's all said and done, millions of latter-day saints throughout the world are influenced and uplifted by the music we share at conference.

It's true the Choir does lots of other things. We have our concerts and sometimes we have local events we sing at. And sometimes we even go on tour to places in the United States or to other countries around the world. But, it's my personal opinion that as great as these other things are, the live performances of these events don't have the reach that MSW and General Conference does. 

So why do I bring all of this up? It's because I realized that it doesn't take a live performance to fulfill the mission of the choir! As much as I and my fellow choir members miss choir right now, we are currently dispensable. Look at last General Conference. It featured past performances of the choir that were just as spiritually effective in promoting truth and love and encouragement as a live performance would have been. Each week at 9:30 AM MT, past performances of MSW are broadcast. And those past performances contain music and words that are just as equally effective in uplifting people's lives as the live or current performances are.

The bottom line is, with so many past performances to draw from, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square could fulfill its mission just fine for years to come without a living, breathing, active choir. Sure, at some point, there'd come a time when that wouldn't be sustainable any more. But for years, it'd be OK. 

With this realization that we choir members aren't really needed (for a time, at least), I've come to receive that dose of humility I spoke of earlier--humility to put into perspective the accolades from family, friends, and associates about how wonderful it is that we sing in the choir and how great it is that we get to use our talents in such a grand, unique way. Such comments may lead some of us to believe that what we do is irreplaceably important. And while that's true from a general perspective, it's not true right now. And it may not be true for months and months to come. Coming to terms with this, I've also struggled with feeling entitled to get more support from the choir leadership--like regular video updates from our directors or the opportunity to participate in a virtual production or being granted access to read through more fan letters and emails (as a way to kind of boost our morale when it needs boosting the most). It's like I want the leadership to reach out to us and say, "Oh, you poor things, not being able to sing for a time! Let me do this, and this, and this for you so that you can get through this trial you're going through!" Haha. But they don't need to do that because it's not about me or the other choir members. Yes, we're important just like everyone is important in God's eyes, but what's more important? It's fulfilling the mission of the choir (even while on rerun auto-pilot)--a continuing mission to reach millions with messages of hope and love and inspiration. Especially during these difficult and volatile times.

So....it's time for me to let the choir go. It's time to be done grieving for the loss. It's time to fill the choir "hole" with other meaningful things. It's time to let the Lord show me what valuable things I can do while I wait upon Him. And it's time to really, truly be grateful that the choir is still able to fulfill its mission quite successfully even if the choir members themselves are no longer involved. 

Until next time, God be with you. 

TCATS #334 - So Long, Creme Coat

We received word this past week that after at least 18 years of service (I think it's 18, since I think it debuted at the 2002 Winter Olympics), the beloved creme colored coat of the men's wardrobe is being retired. 

I use the word "beloved" only because it was beloved by some. For me personally, I was never really a fan. It wasn't necessarily the color itself. In fact, I think we looked pretty darn good in the creamy white. But in my opinion, the fit of the coat was awkward at best, and pairing it with a normal white dress shirt--instead of an actual tux shirt that's built for a bowtie--just never quite seemed to "work". Every time I put it on, I tried to envision it in the various depictions below, all the time knowing such depictions would never become reality.

Now I realize that devoting a blog post to the color of a coat is kind of a silly subject to focus on--especially when such focus centers on my personal opinions of what the creme jacket could have looked like. But noteworthy choir news has been hard to come by these days! Yes, we released an excellent EP album recently, and yes, the weekly re-broadcasts of Music & the Spoken Word continue to inspire many, but aside from that, there's little to say. 

Speaking of the men's wardrobe though, the men of the choir received an email this week asking us to sign up for a time that we could go into the Tabernacle and have a fitting for our new tux. Social distancing and wearing a mask were required and it was strictly to be an "in and out" activity. At any rate, the new tux will definitely be a great addition to the current wardrobe.  And while I probably shouldn't announce its color or specific look, I will say it's modern looking and of a color not currently worn by the men! 

All that's missing now is actually being able to meet together and sing!

Until next time, God be with you.

PS: A big shoutout to our men's wardrobe committee that does an excellent job in fulfilling so many responsibilities: replacing buttons, sewing up tares, having our suits and shirts dry cleaned, making sure we don't have the wrong suit color or tie on when we leave the locker room, sizing us for new items, and so much more! Thank you, brethren.

TCATS #333 - New Album Released!

Today's post was supposed to be "Reminiscing, Part 2", but I'll save that for next week if that's OK by you. I wanted, instead, to announce the official release of our new EP album called "When You Believe: A Night at the Movies". The album has five tracks on it, including songs from The Avengers, Star Wars, O Brother Where Are Thou?, Prince of Egypt, and Frozen. While a part of me wishes we would have included a few more songs on the EP and made it a full album (we certainly have other movie songs in our repertoire), I'm happy to see how well-received it's been thus far, all around the world. Some reviews on Amazon included the following sentiments: 

"Absolutely loved the music! I want more! I really enjoyed listening to each track. Duel of the Fates was my favorite."
 
"Hollywood should tap into this national treasure, the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, on a frequent basis. Too bad this was such a short list of music. Bravo!"

Kenny Mac on Twitter said "Stoked to announce that I had the immense honor to have done an original arrangement of music from the Avengers series with The Tabernacle Choir. Experience a brand new take on music from the series, now with the addition of a 360-person choir!"

In an article the Deseret News published, Mack Wilberg and Scott Barrick (the Choir's general manager) had this to say about the EP:

“With this EP, the one thing that was of prime importance was that the music had to be inspirational and it had to be faith-promoting,” the choir director said. “Both ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Avengers’ are about overcoming darkness, darkness to light. … The music has to have an integrity about it.”

“But we also tried to be cognizant of reaching out to new audiences,” Barrick added. “We tried to be aware of release dates of movies or anything that we could tie into like the ‘Star Wars’ day. … The pieces that Mack outlined were primary, but we tried to leverage all the other pieces so that we could share this music with as broad an audience as possible.”

A huge amount of kudos should go to the Orchestra at Temple Square for the amazing work they did on this EP. Sure, the Choir has some minor contributions to both the Star Wars piece and the Avengers piece, but for those two songs in particular, the Orchestra stole the show, as they say. One of the percussionists (drummers) in the Orchestra, Danny, on the eve of the EP release said "Are all y'all as excited as I am to listen to the Avengers Medley tomorrow? Bring it on!" That made me smile because I remember watching him go crazy on the drums as we were recording the medley. In fact, during the recording Mack Wilberg actually told him he could play louder (which never happens, haha!) and louder he did play! All of the percussionists and orchestra were just playing up a storm and having so much fun with it all. 

We all did. 

And while the Avengers and Star Wars tracks were big and epic and amazing, my personal favorite was "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. That song just gets me every time. I can only imagine how the children of Israel felt after being enslaved for so long and finally being able to be FREE. What a beautiful tribute to faith, endurance, and believing.

Our next album will be the Christmas Concert album featuring music from last year's concert. I'm sure that'll be released sometime in October or November. As for albums after that.... well, at the rate we're going with COVID-19, I'm really not sure. We might have quite a dry spell ahead of us!

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #332 - Of Reminiscing, Part 1

As social distancing continues to keep the choir apart, it's times like these when I need to just sit back and do some reminiscing of the "good ol' days". The art of remembering is a powerful tool that can be used for a lot of things, and I'd like to employ it right now as I think about some highlights during the past six years of being in the Choir. Ready to take a little journey with me? Awesome. And welcome aboard!

For part 1 of our journey, I take us back to March of 2014. The group I had come into the Choir with had been in choir school for about two and a half months. And because Bro. Wilberg was needing us to lend our voices to the upcoming Messiah performance, he asked that we start singing on Music & the Spoken Word. Why? Because these weekly performances were going to include pieces from The Messiah and we'd be able to learn them quicker if we joined the Tabernacle Choir in performing them (there's no better way to learn a piece than to know you're going to perform it, prepare accordingly, and then actually perform it). So, instead of traditionally waiting until the end of April/first part of May for those in the choir school to join the weekly broadcasts, we joined the second week of March (if memory serves). I'll never forget that first broadcast! I felt a mix of excitement, nervousness, exhilaration, and wonderment. In my mind, I was thinking of all of the times I had watched Music & the Spoken Word on television, always thinking very highly of all of the talented singers and wondering what it would be like to be one of them. And suddenly, there I was--one of them! Would I be on camera? Would I remember the words? Would I stand up, sit down, and bring up my folder all at the right times? I remember too, feeling nervous that I would mess up in turning the pages of my music or drop my music altogether because I had always held my music folder in my right hand--and the Tabernacle Choir all held folders in their left. It sounds like a little thing, but whether my left hand was up for the challenge remained to be seen! Anyway, while I don't recall exactly what pieces we sang, the thrill of it all of being my first actual performance was simply amazing. The fulfillment of a dream come true.

Another very memorable experience was my first Christmas Concert. Truth be told, I had never ever seen a Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert before. I had no idea what a huge production they were. As the guest artists had been announced months before, I had my doubts on how great it would be. Little did I know that the Sesame Street Muppets were determined to not only make this year's Christmas Concert great, but forever memorable! I remember going to rehearsal the Wednesday before and seeing everything just come together like magic. I was in awe. It was also the concert that I was able to perform next to one of my best friends in the choir--Ryan Bateman. The next three nights were full of inspiration and wonder and the audience just loved every minute of it. It was then I was taken to a new level of appreciation and gratitude for all of the great experiences I was being given in the Tabernacle at Temple Square. And I felt so excited for more to come.

Part 2 next week...
Until then, God be with you.

 

TCATS #331 - The Long Haul

There was word this week that several leaders from well-respected choral organizations around the world met for a webinar to discuss the future of choral singing given the pandemic we're in (The Tabernacle Choir was NOT involved--to be clear). The conclusions these leaders came to was that it could be up to TWO years before normal choral singing resumes. 

After hearing that, I couldn't help but think how outrageous such a conclusion was. Two years? Even one year seemed like a very long time! Thinking there was even a remote possibility that the Tabernacle Choir wouldn't be able to sing together until some time in 2021 just made me sad. I realize that these choral organization leaders are only making an educated guess based off of current pandemic related information, trends, social reactions, and other available data. And what they think might happen, may actually not happen. Obviously, they are hoping that their conclusions are flat out wrong. But, it certainly made me think about things a little more closely. 

And here are some of my thoughts.

It will likely take several months, at least, for groups of over 300 to be able to meet together.
And when such large groups are able to meet, they will likely be asked to keep their distance and wear masks. 
Who knows when groups of thousands will be able to congregate. Movie theaters that are reopening are keeping plenty of seats and rows between patrons and are sanitizing like crazy in-between movies. Sports teams have been talking about playing their regular seasons, but playing to a very limited number of spectators (if at all). Musicals and plays that are scheduled to be performed at Hale Center Theater, for example, are still on hold until at least Utah's recovery plan moves everybody from orange to yellow--even though yellow protocols, for cultural arts events, are almost the same as orange. It's really the green phase they are after. But that may be months...

Applying that all to the Choir:
Wearing masks is out--it would muffle our sound. 
We could sit apart from each other, but that, too, would affect our sound. Not to mention trying to find a configuration that would lend itself to an actual performance. 
Some of the hallways underneath the Tabernacle are narrow and when everyone is trying to put away their music or get changed into performance attire, social distancing would be ever so difficult if not impossible. 
It would be feasible to allow large spacing between audience members if we resumed operations in the 21,000 seat Conference Center. But again, keeping choir members and orchestra members with ample space between them just doesn't seem possible.

Anyway, I could go on. But the more I think about things, the more I think we're in for the long haul. It'll be interesting to watch how God continues to inspire our leaders and see what creative solutions they come up with in the future.

On the flip side, some choir members have chosen to voice their appreciation for this long extended break. Some blessings/positives? 
--Getting to sleep in on Sundays and spend more time with family.
--Having Thursday nights (typically rehearsal nights) to do other things.
--Not needing to memorize any music.
--Gaining a new appreciation for the blessing it is to be in the choir in the first place.
--Checking in with fellow choir members more often via texting or video chatting--allowing for friendships to deepen and expand in new ways.
--And, for those who were going on tour, suddenly having 15 vacation days to spend on other things.

We'll continue to see how things unfold. 
Until next time, God be with you.


 

TCATS #330 - 2020 Tour Officially Postponed

Those of you who follow the choir pretty closely have probably already heard by now that the 2020 Heritage Tour has been officially postponed to 2021. This news did not come as any surprise. I was almost positive it would either be cancelled altogether or postponed until a later date. And postponed it was. From other choir members I talked to, and from various posts on the choir's Facebook group, the general consensus was that while disappointing, postponing the tour was the right thing to do. 

Of course, moving the tour to 2021 comes with its own set of challenges for the choir members who were planning to go this year. Whether it be work projects, family vacations, financial difficulties (mainly from the COVID-19 fallout), or even the possibility of having more kids, the summer of 2021 is different than the summer of 2020. For me, my son Josh will be back from his mission to Albania and one of my daughters will be graduating from high school. And as such, we wanted to do a big family trip to celebrate those two events. Basically, if the only time we can do our family trip is at the same time the choir will be on tour, then the family trip will win out. But it's just too early to do some of that date-related detailed planning, so I'll wait and see. 

For those who are curious about how things will work regarding who gets to go on the 2021 tour, here's a very short Q&A for you:

1) Will all those who were selected to on the 2020 tour automatically be selected to go on the 2021 tour?  No. Everyone has to reapply and decisions will mainly be based on attendance at rehearsals and concerts during the past 12 months.
2) If you were approved to bring a guest on the 2020 tour, can you still bring one for the 2021 tour? No. Guests have to reapply as well. 
3) Will those retiring from the Choir in April of 2021 be eligible to go on the 2021 tour? Yes. So this is good news for those who originally thought that moving the tour out a year would make them ineligible to go. 

That's about it. And for anyone asking the question "When will you get to go back to Choir?"....well, the answer continues to be "I don't know." SLC has started easing restrictions, but social distancing is still a thing and large church congregations still can't meet. With a group our size, we will be the last ones to be given a green light. I'm hoping for August or September. But who knows. It's all sad to think about.

Until next time, may God be with you.