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Collaboration

Silver Linings: Cross-Country Collaborative Choral Initiatives

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By Tracy Wong

“Shared joy is a double joy. Shared sorrow is half a sorrow.” This Swedish proverb rings true as we reach the one-year mark of this pandemic and reflect on how COVID-19 continues to impact the global choral community. In Canada, the changing restrictions for this evolving pandemic have prompted choral leaders to be more creative, flexible, and resourceful when it comes to keeping the choral community active while adhering to health and safety guidelines. Creative collaborations that were launched since the start of the pandemic continue to help organizations to share resources, while contributing towards continued creation of new music and learning experiences. As a choral conductor and composer, I am fortunate to be a part of the creation of Canada’s cross-country collaborative choral initiatives such as the Bridge Choral Collective and Sonic Timelapse Project.

The Bridge Choral Collective (BCC) was co-founded in Summer 2020 by Allison Girvan, Scott Leithead, Katy Luyk, Geung Kroeker-Lee, Matthew Otto, Carrie Tennant, and Tracy Wong. “BCC represents a bold cross-Canada initiative to generate thrilling new music, rooted in justice, in a time of global contemplation. It cements the bonds among some of Canada’s most innovative youth and young adult choirs, and brings them together to explore and create in partnership with guest artists from around the world.” BCC co-founders bring together their respective choirs, also known as Partner Choirs, in shared online workshops with guest artists. These partner choirs are Corazón Vocal Ensemble (Nelson, BC), Grand Philharmonic Youth Choir (Kitchener, ON), Kokopelli Choirs (Edmonton, AB), Prairie Voices (Winnipeg, MB), Toronto Youth Choir (Toronto, ON), and Vancouver Youth Choir (Vancouver, BC).

The global line-up of guest artists that partner choirs have been fortunate to learn from are University of Pretoria Youth Choir, Moira Smiley, Sherryl Sewepagaham, Rajaton, Elise Bradley, Michael McGlynn & Anúna, Jason Max Ferdinand & The Aeolians, Jacob Collier, FreePlay Duo, and Annika McGivern. Upcoming guests are Elise Bradley & Choirs Aotearoa, Mark Anthony Carpio & The Philippine Madrigal Singers, Rajaton, and Lone Larsen & VONO.

BCC also offers the Building Bridges program, providing opportunities for participation for young singers at the high school and post-secondary level as well as professional development workshops for music educators and conductors, all of whom have the opportunity to learn from some of the above guest artists. Patron choirs and donors have been integral in supporting the continued efforts in quality content.

Sonic Timelapse Project (STP) is “a collaborative choral art commissioning project created as a response to the global COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of gathering content from the emotional landscape of choral communities in Canada and beyond. Using an innovative crowdfunding model, this project brings together shared creativity and financial resources in a time of need to fund the creation of 10 new works as well as support online programming for participating choirs. The project was founded by Katerina Gimon, Laura Hawley, and Geung Kroeker-Lee with the support of Prairie Voices Inc.”

The Canadian Partner Composers involved in the creation of new music are Deanna Edwards, Jeff Enns, Katerina Gimon, Laura Hawley, Shane Raman, Marie-Claire Saindon, Ben Sellick, and Tracy Wong. These composers create new choral works inspired by the thoughts and responses of choral conductors, composers, and choristers about the pandemic. Choirs and choral conductors participate in various crowdfunding tiers to co-fund the commission of new pieces that are flexible for online/distanced rehearsals, may be in multiple voicing arrangements, and be featured on a future choral concert program. Participating choirs have access to learning tracks and supporting resources created by each composer. Perusal sheet music and program notes for all new pieces are available on the website.

STP also features a Creative Workshop series where founders lead choristers and classroom students through the creative reflection and composition process as well as provide supplementary resources (recorded videos, lesson plans, Google slides) to continue supporting choral educators and conductors with quality educational content.

At this point of writing, there are a number of events / workshops by BCC and STP that are still available for those who are interested. Bridge Choral Collective’s Building Bridges program is still accepting registrations for upcoming workshops for youth/young adult choirs and music educators featuring Sir Mark Carpio (of The Philippine Madrigal Singers) and Lone Larsen & VONO (Sweden). Sonic Timelapse Project continues to welcome participating choirs and conductors to their crowdfunding community – participants in Tiers 2 and up will have exclusive access to purchase and perform (digitally/live) a number of the new commissions (based on their Tier) during the Exclusivity Period (up until June 1, 2021). Their educational workshops are ongoing. For more information, kindly visit: https://bridgechoralcollective.ca/ and https://www.sonictimelapse.com/

In essence, collaborative creative initiatives like Bridge Choral Collective and Sonic Timelapse Project are one of the many silver linings for the Canadian choral community during this pandemic. As a choral conductor, music educator, and composer, I am in awe of, and inspired by, the vast creation of new initiatives by my resilient colleagues and am constantly energized witnessing the flexibility and positive response of choral singers and choral supporters. To quote Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt, ACDA Interim Executive Director: “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.”

Tracy Wong is the Assistant Professor and Choral Director of McMaster University’s School of the Arts, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and conductor of the Grand Philharmonic Youth Choir, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

A few months ago ACDA began soliciting and sharing “silver lining” reflections from our members. We have enjoyed them so much, we decided to share them in a wider way on ChoralNet. Have you experienced a silver lining during the course of this challenging year? Please email a draft to for consideration in this series.

The Power of Purposeful Collaboration: A 1000-Mile Collaboration between RISE Chorales (Savannah, GA) and Lawrence Community Girl Choir (Appleton, WI), including Composer Matt Carlson (Gettysburg, PA)

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By Karen L. Bruno and Dr. Emily Williams Burch

In a year during which many of us have experienced deep divisions and conflict, purposeful collaboration can be a balm that pulls us together. As teacher-conductors, many of us have spent hours on Zoom meetings and webinars sharing best practices, learning from one another, and building our community of colleagues. But have we considered how to help our singers experience the power of purposeful collaboration? When sitting down to plan for their virtual choir season, RISE Chorales, a Savannah-based choral organization, and the Lawrence Community Girl Choir Program based in Appleton, Wisconsin, started with one overarching goal in mind: through a collaborative musical process, singers would share their stories, exploring both the challenges and the joys of living through a pandemic.

RISE Chorales Founder/Artistic Director, Dr. Emily Williams Burch, met the Lawrence Community Girl Choir Program Artistic Director, Karen Bruno, while serving on the national American Choral Directors Association’s standing committee for Advocacy and Collaboration. Bruno then was a guest on Burch’s “Music (ed) Matters” Podcast, which led to a discussion about creating a meaningful collaboration.

“I love that this project celebrates our singers’ voices – literally and figuratively,” comments Bruno, whose high school choir, Bel Canto, is participating in the collaboration. “As the world changes around them, it’s important that our students have opportunities to be involved in projects that celebrate and incorporate their ideas.”

The culmination of the collaboration will be the co-creation and premier of a new work by composer Matt Carlson. Members of each group will share their experiences of living and making music during a pandemic, and Carlson will set these thoughts to music for the choirs to learn and premier.

“Writing music has been so important to me as a way to process the complex emotional thoughts of the time in which we live,” says Carlson. “It’s a composer’s dream to be able to work with choirs in real-time while writing a new piece. I’m thrilled to collaborate with these excellent choral programs, and to provide a space in which their students may be inspired to respond to our world through writing music of their own.”

During the initial rehearsal, singers learned the song Give Light, a song written by Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino of Magpie. Its text comes from words of civil rights activist Ella Baker; in preparation for the combined rehearsal, both choirs read an article about Baker’s life and critical role in the twentieth-century American voting and Civil Rights movements. As high school girls comprise each choir, centering the words and experience of a Black woman was an important way to begin to build community. The singers then discussed the song’s melody, rhythm, and harmony in small groups, drawing their own parallels between the elements, text, and experience of singing and listening to the song together. Finally, composer Carlson led the singers through Begin, a piece he wrote for treble choirs in June of this year. He explained what inspired him to write the piece and shared important aspects of his composition process.

The choirs will come together four more times between November and February. They will record Begin as one group and will more deeply explore the themes of resilience and community, sharing ideas that will inform Carlson’s new composition. When asked to make up a headline to describe the first rehearsal, singers submitted ideas like, “Music Leads the Change We Need in the World,” “Listening, Learning, and Loving,” and “Powerful Women’s Choirs Unite in Their Individuality.”

This type of collaborative project is not difficult to create, but it does require alignment regarding goals or outcomes. Find a collaborator whose program is aligned with yours in terms of level of expertise, age group, and interest level so that community is easier to build, and be sure to set shared goals for the project that will benefit both programs. If one teacher-conductor or program is doing more of the planning or teaching, or if one teacher-conductor envisions a different final outcome of the collaboration, singers will be caught in the middle of an uncomfortable process.

Also note that collaborations need not take place over several weeks or months – a one-time workshop or experience can be just as impactful as a longer-term commitment. What does your choir need? What can you envision? What are your own strengths and weaknesses? Will your singers grow more if a third person – someone outside both organizations – is at the helm? How will the collaboration benefit everyone involved?

For instance, this project began with teacher-conductors learning about one another’s programs. They identified shared goals and decided upon the scope of the project. They chose rehearsal dates and times and created outcomes for each rehearsal. Meetings before and between rehearsals have featured collaborative, specific, and structured lesson planning. Specificity creates accountability for each participant, ultimately ensuring that each group’s needs are being met.

As the members of RISE and Lawrence’s Bel Canto look to future rehearsals, singers hope to get to know one another, learn the musical culture of each choral program, and make music together. Everyone involved is excited to see how the singers’ words and experiences become textual and musical ideas for a new choral composition. The students immediately understood that they were building a new community through this project and are excited to “overcome distance,” “face adversity,” and “spread love and empowerment” together through this project.

To learn more, visit RISEchorales.com, communitymusic.lawrence.edu/programs/girl_choir, or mattcarlson.co.

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