Every year at about this time, choirs and other performing organizations that present holiday shows go through the dissonance of singing about sleighs, snow, and Christmas trees when summer has barely ended. For all the strange twists that 2020 has given us, that dissonance remains the same: On the first Monday after Labor Day, Choir of the Sound got to work practicing “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
Of course, we weren’t in our usual rehearsal space, sitting shoulder to shoulder and listening to each other sing. Like many jobs and classes, the new choir season is taking place on computer screens, thanks to the magic of Zoom. While there will be some technical challenges as we enter new territory, we’re also discovering some unexpected benefits.
The virtual space where rehearsals now occur is not located in Shoreline, WA; it takes no travel time to get there, and there’s no need for families with young kids to hire a babysitter. For many of us, the full implications of that didn’t sink in until we joined the first rehearsal and saw some unexpected faces in the grid: people who have not performed with Choir of the Sound for years. because they moved out of town, or out of state; or whose work or family needs made it impossible for them to spend so much time away from home. Suddenly, these choir alumni are excitedly rejoining us from far-flung places and sometimes with children in the next room. Seeing old friends appearing on our screen was, in the words of one member, “like opening packages on Christmas morning!”
Like so many other things in 2020, the holiday show (and the rehearsals leading up to it) will be online and nothing like last year. But there is joy to be had, and music to make with friends old and new. The show will go on.