Performance

Joint Statement on Continued Safety Measures During the Holiday Season

Chorus America, American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS), and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) have collaborated since the beginning of the pandemic to provide our members with the best and most current guidance from the CDC, as well as the latest research on singing and COVID-19. As we convene this winter to share cheer through song, it is crucial that health and safety continue to be at the forefront of organizing. We urge individuals and groups to appropriately assess the personal and organizational risk factors of operating in

Digital Content Revenue Strategies During the Pandemic and Beyond

BY KATHERINE CASTILLE

As it became clear the COVID-19 pandemic would wear on for months, many choruses launched digital initiatives to keep their music and their message in front of their audiences. Those with digital strategies already in place have stepped up their efforts. Others are just beginning to navigate this new frontier. All of them are learning valuable lessons about what digital content their audiences want and are willing to pay for.

With singers and concertgoers alike missing festive outings to beloved holiday concerts, this season’s online holiday choral events are giving us the chance to adapt our time-honored traditions. Chorus America is promoting these events to the public to help choruses connect with new audiences and choral fans discover good cheer from the safety of their homes.

Commemorating the 19th Amendment: Singing about Suffrage and Exploring Intersectionality

“Awake! Awake! Ye sisters all,” is the opening line to the “Suffrage Marching Song,” by Fanny Connable and Florence Livingston Lent, composed in 1914 to benefit the Equal Suffrage Cause. Like many political movements, the suffrage movement was inherently linked with music, making the 2020 centennial of the 19th Amendment’s ratification a natural programmatic theme. Choruses across the U.S. are honoring this anniversary with new events and commissions featuring women’s voices, including premieres happening this weekend.

The Virtual Premiere of “As Long As We Are Here”

SPONSORED CONTENT FROM A CHORUS AMERICA PARTNER

There can be serendipity in the most challenging change of plans. The Master Chorale of South Florida was scheduled for a prime performance at the 2020 Chorus America Conference in Miami -- an ideal setting to premiere a commission from composer Jake Runestad. With a global coronavirus pandemic putting a halt to choral events and most of everyday life as we know it, this performance obviously did not come to fruition.

Instead, the Master Chorale and artistic director Brett Karlin discovered they possesed a brand new work that spoke with uncanny eloquence to our new reality -- and the opportunity to premiere it with the involvement of a wider community of audience members, renowned conductors, and singers than they ever imagined. Karlin and Runestad shared their stories with Chorus America on the journey of this new commission, As Long As We Are Here, which enters a new chapter this fall.

A Few Early Ventures Into In-Person Singing

Slowly and cautiously - and with great hope - corners of the choral community are beginning to explore possibilities of in-person singing, adapting to take precautions as COVID-19 concerns remain. The summer appears to have allowed the field some room to plan and experiment, with a few projects airing this weekend. True to choral form, these ventures display an abundance of creativity and represent a broad range of ideas!

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