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COVID-19

Dropping the Covid Ball with Dr. Nikki Johnson

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The Return of Covid Conversations!

Sadly, many of us in education have lived at the epicenter of the Covid Wars. Possibly the biggest political football during the pandemic has been what to do with the kids, and what to do with schools. For those of us in choral music, we lived at that intersection along with a hysteria created at first by our very own professional organizations. This contributed to a perfect storm of lost positions, cut programs, recruiting problems and a laundry list of misplaced apprehensions about singing. Facts that I am still not sure we have all come to terms with. Of course, it is important to remember that in this cross fire were students and community members displaced from life affirming and often life saving educational and humanizing opportunities. While it is always reasonable to weigh new risks against old norms, it is not reasonable to present our preferred policies as if they have no downsides worthy of heavy consideration. In this episode I speak with Pediatrician, and Covid Policy Advocate Dr. Nikki Johnson about the “Harm Reduction” approach to Covid Policy, the political blinders we all wore or still wear, and many errors in reasoning to which this contributed. One of the big errors singers have made is the role masks play in our safety.

Dr. Nikki Johnson

We also discuss the difference between a high quality signers mask designed to STAY ON while you sing… (Like a scientifically vetted singers mask. Most aren’t…) and just wearing any old mask for any amount of time, flopping your jaw around willy nilly. Finally, we do a bit of prognosticating about ways to process in a more healthy way in the next wave.

You can listen from the widgets below which will take you to Apple or Castbox to finish listening, or you can find the show on Google Play, Spotify, Youtube or Stitcher!

Materials Referenced in the Episode
NYT Article Mentioned RE Mask effectiveness vs. Mask POLICY

Early in the Pandemic, Europe Was Much Quicker to Get Kids Back to School

Episode 107: Retention Matters MORE than Recruitment

Advertisements Straight out of the archives! Most of my live presentations are reserved for Patreon Subscribers, but I felt so strongly about the ideas in this presentation, I decided to air it out for everybody. It is my belief that when we talk about building choral programs, or any program for that matter, we do …

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Episode 106: If Every One Agrees, We Can’t Have the “Difficult Conversations” with Micah Horton

Advertisements Many people think they are speaking truth to power, but they are really just preaching to the choir. This episode deals with the role of political discourse in the lives of all citizens, and educators in particular. The future of education is hanging in the balance right now as I see it, based on …

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Episode 105: Work Less Hard, Have Better Choirs

Advertisements Sound too good to be true? Well, it is if you are thinking that there is a quick and easy pill to swallow in order to get to that next level in your career. You know, the one where you simply, issue wisdom, wave your arms, say inspirational things, and the choir just SINGS! …

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Diverse Embodiments: How COVID-19 Expanded Choral Practice

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The February 2022 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Diverse Embodiments: How COVID-19 Expanded Choral Practice” by Caron Daley. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction.

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COVID-19 chipped at the foundations of the choral art, sending out a shock wave of fear regarding the newfound dangers of group singing. Remote, hybrid, distanced, and outdoor rehearsals introduced cumbersome protocols and procedures. Performances were canceled and moved into virtual spaces. Emergent choral practices seemed decontextualized and perceptually and educationally inferior. Essential questions arose, such as, “If a choir is made up of a group of interconnected singing bodies, does a choir still exist if the singing bodies are not in physical proximity, or if singers cannot hear one another singing?”

Day to day, choral musicians experienced a loss of social connection and source of fulfillment, including the opportunity to mitigate the stresses imposed by the pandemic through choral singing experiences.1 For those who contracted COVID-19, otolaryngologic symptoms such as “dysphonia, cough, sore throat, loss of smell, nasal blockage, rhinorrhea, and headache” affected their ability to sing.2 For some, this included long-term symptoms such as lung damage, vocal fold paralysis, and chronic fatigue—symptoms that endanger professional singing careers.3 For countless musicians, the pandemic brought unwanted losses of income and economic instability.4

There are many important lenses through which to view the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the choral profession. This paper will explore these effects from the theoretical perspective of embodiment, defined as “an effect where the body, its sensorimotor state, its morphology, or its mental representation play an instrumental role in information processing.”5 Embodiment undergirds all aspects of choral practice. For example, can you picture the sights and sounds of the choral room? Breathe in the smell of the carpet. See the location, position, and height of the podium in your mind’s eye. Can you hear a favorite choral piece being sung, or feel the thrill of the final cadence in your bones? Imagine the choristers as they spill into the room, poised to learn new skills, pursue musical artistry, and strengthen social bonds.

The pandemic reconstituted many of these familiar experiences, introducing new ways to learn and perform choral music. This article seeks to explain how embodiment was expressed through pandemic choral practices, asking: (1) How did the loss of in-person singing bring greater awareness to the body’s involvement in choral singing? (2) As we return to singing, what new instructional possibilities exist in a diversely embodied choral practice?

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Notes
1 Helena Daff ern et al., “Singing Together, Yet Apart: The Experience of UK Choir Members and Facilitators During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021): 8.
2 Dylan Vance et al., “COVID-19: Impact on the Musician and Returning to Singing; A Literature Review,” Journal of Voice (2021): 2; Lynn Helding et al., “COVID-19 After Effects: Concerns for Singers,” Journal of Voice (2020): 7-8.
3 Helding et al.
4 Daff ern et al., 7.
5 Anita Korner et al., “Routes to Embodiment,” Frontiers in Psychology 6 (2015): 1.

Stories of Healing and Reimagining: Commonalities Part 2

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As choral professionals has navigated COVID, many have taken a hard look at equity in the field. Some have focused on addressing systemic issues within the field, while others have worked within their spheres to make changes in their classrooms, rehearsals, schools, and sacred spaces. As I asked choral professionals about ADEI, some were more comfortable talking about equity than others. What is clear to me is this: if ADEIB matters, our profession needs to do a better job supporting choral professionals in their long-term work (Dr. Fox addressed this in his interview). The future of our choral singing is vibrant, engaging, and diverse, if the choral professionals allow space and commit to the work.

 

Ms. Mari Ésabel Valverde spoke about music programming in her interview: For example, some people talk about “classics” in the choral world. What does this mean? These pieces have teachable and valuable concepts, but “you can’t say it’s as meaningful as something like Seven Last Words of the Unarmed Black Man. Experiencing that piece shakes people to their core.”

 

Regarding system work:

Dr. Anne Lyman: Ultimately, she knows she can continue to challenge her own role within her community and the systems that she is involved with.

Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa: Are the systems in place, whether previously designed or created by you, preventing relationships with people in your space and community?

Ms. Mari Ésabel Valverde: Also, Mari points out, people, structures, and institutions often still operate from the belief that women are actually property. This doesn’t work when you are a trans woman. She’s had to understand her own worth, and in response, she has committed to taking better care of herself.

 

It’s worth resharing what some of our colleagues said about equity in the past years. These conversations were insightful, personal, and powerful.

 

Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa: Equity, he points out, is not a separate thing. “What’s the alternative?” he asks. Are choirs singing without thinking about equity/access? If one is not thinking about equity or access, are they living their life and doing their work without thinking about how it affects others?

Ms. Amanda Stevenson: “When we are talking about equity, we have to define that,” Ms. Stevenson says, “Equity is not a marketing [ploy].” Financial accessibility, organizational access and equity, music accessibility, rehearsal spaces (location, spaces that aren’t affiliated with a religious institution)… “Who has benefited the most [from traditional models of communal singing]? Who have we actually left behind?”

Dr. Anne Lyman: “How can we hope for our young singers to have a future in singing if we don’t make equity a part of everything we do?” Dr. Lyman posed. This includes acknowledging that what we’ve done until this point has not been sufficient, or has been flat out wrong. 

Dr. Derrick Fox: “How do we support long-term work?” It requires investment of time and thoughtfulness. While a one-off workshop can be important, it’s not just about the music sung; it’s about the words said. There needs to be space/time to talk; only then can we bring in what is needed. We can’t be enticed by expediency. This work doesn’t have an end time.

Ms. Marie A Ellis: “When you know better, you do better.” The choral profession has the opportunity to become more equitable, to do better. “We didn’t do 2020 for nothing,” she said, stating that people have to keep pushing their organizations.

Alan: As he looks forward, he recognizes he has control over his class environment. He prioritizes an open and welcoming space. This past year, he spoke to students about Asian-American violence. Alan is an Asican-American, and there were times he was worried about his safety. His Asian-American colleagues felt the same. He shared a real part of his humanity with students, and the conversation he had with them was very real.

Mr. Remel Derrick: Remel explained that he lives in his world all the time; he’s constantly in it. He has not found a way to talk about that through music (or, he implied, he’s not sure if that even should be his focus). When it comes to addressing equity, he says “Let’s just do it… in our own spheres of influence.” As he thinks about his own composing, he keeps coming back to the question: “How can I present music that does not divide, but brings us together?”

Ms. Stephanie Gravelle: This past year, she also did an audit on herself. She created a spreadsheet and listed the repertoire she gave students– everything they listened to and all the materials she used. The spreadsheet included time period, religious background, gender perspective, etc. She wanted to see what she used and then ask “do I want to change anything? If so, how?” She set up weekly themes where she highlighted different genres of music and a variety of performers. This work will continue as she asks “How am I amplifying various voices, and how can I diversify that amplification?” In addition to finding culture bearers of musics, she plans to teach these musics like they might be taught in their origin environment.  

Stories of Healing and Reimagining: Commonalities Part 1

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The next two blogs are going to review some of the common themes from this blog over the past 6+ months. If you’ve been reading regularly, you’ll know that this series has focused on managing music-making during COVID while also addressing ADEIB. In Part 1 of Commonalities, we will review the logistics of music-making in the past 18+ months, and dive into what our colleagues said about the heart of teaching during COVID.

Singing has continued in some form. Many of us became audio/video editors. We’ve had premieres bumped, or conducted a concert before everything was shut down. Many choral colleagues followed the aerosol study guidelines. This study has been instrumental in helping decide what is safer and what carries too much risk. Some colleagues were asked to be more cautious than recommendations (such as not having in-person classes during the 2020-21 school year or not having a choir during a worship service), and some haven’t been allowed to follow all the risk mitigation procedures recommended (such as not being allowed to require masks in rehearsals). Colleagues have used a mix of Zoom and in-person rehearsals. In-person rehearsals have included physical distancing, masks, limiting rehearsal time, vaccine requirements, and/or regular testing. Choral colleagues have been resilient as they look for ways to promote music making, learning, advocacy, and facilitate emotional growth and support for singers.  

In both returning to music making and equity, many interviewees spoke about the importance of relationships and community building. Below, you’ll read some important moments in these conversations discussing community building.  

  • Mr. Remel Derrick: On the other hand, the community was incredible. “We are in this together” was stronger than Remel had ever experienced with his students. There was a tightening of an already close-knit group …students (and teachers) will be managing post traumatic stress. Knowing this, Remel is planning to leave space for his students to share their experiences. “[It can be] hard to talk about it when you are in the middle,” but afterwards, students may want to share, and may need additional support… He is looking for texts addressing collective grief, singing, and community.
  • Ms. Stephanie Gravelle: Some students are struggling with how to have a discussion or work collaboratively. Technique is very important, but right now they need to come into a room that makes them feel happy, safe, and wanted. Her focus will be what it always is: find the heart of her singers and have their hearts connected. 
  • Ms. Olivia Vestal: As she builds her program, community is one of her priorities… Sometimes community building has looked different than she anticipated… Her approach [is] to try to educate [students] on how to care about individual people in their community, and what that expression of care might look (or sound) like. 
  • Ms. Amanda Stevenson: But really, it was all about the community.  And that, she says, is what the singers need the most.
  • Ms. Jazzmone Sutton: “What we do is community,” Jazzmone said, “We should strive to build relationships within our space.” She did that in her teaching, and it’s how she approaches advocacy.  
  • Dr. Derrick Fox: He knew hybrid learning, masks, and shields would be barriers to connection in Fall 2020, so he created “choir families” for students to build community and process their previous spring.
  • Alan: Alan was impressed with how resilient students were, especially since he knows students need community. Related, he’s been grateful for the focus on mental health. They’ve always talked about it at some level, but there has been a deeper dive… He also wishes they had more counselors at his school… there simply aren’t enough of them to provide the academic and mental health support to large numbers of students.
  • Dr. Anne Lyman: Dr. Lyman also pointed out that sometimes less music may be performed because there was a higher need for conversation around the music.
  • Ms. Maria A Ellis: If we want to keep people singing, we shouldn’t allow anyone to feel bad if they don’t have a certain skill. We, as choral professionals, need to create paths forward.
  • Dr. Ahmed Anzaldúa: “For any justice work,” Dr. Anzaldúa said, “there has to be relationship work. Without relationship, it’s charity.” When we discuss equity work, it comes down to relationship. What’s the relationship you have with your singers, administrators, community? More importantly, what relationships are missing? Are the systems in place, whether previously designed or created by you, preventing relationships with people in your space and community? What are your relationships and what are the quality of your relationships? Even social justice-minded people can be unsure of how to respond or who to engage when confronted with a social-justice issue. He has seen that happen in organizations as well. A lot of organizations realized they didn’t have a relationship that would allow them to reach out to a community. It’s important to do authentic outreach, and whether this is in an organization or community, it requires establishing relationships.

Stories of Healing and Reimagining with Derrick Fox

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In March 2020, Dr. Derrick Fox was leading students toward a performance of “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” by Joel Thompson. This performance was a culmination of choral experiences over multiple years, where Dr. Fox and students had worked to build an awareness of the human experience. They sang octavos covering different topics, such as mental health, and discussed how the topics were experienced by different people. Students engaged in leadership activities and the choirs met with local school choirs. In Thompson’s work, students had to be able to sing the pieces and have open conversations about the lived experience of Black folks in America. It had taken three years of work to lay the groundwork for this particular concert project. The performance was on Tuesday. School shut down the following Friday. 

 

With the performance behind them, Dr. Fox faced another problem: Students didn’t get community recovery time after this emotional performance experience due to the shut down. He was determined to find space to uplift, challenge, and affirm their experience. He knew hybrid learning, masks, and shields would be barriers to connection in Fall 2020, so he created “choir families” for students to build community and process their previous spring. He would sometimes observe these interactions to listen, learn, and find a way to recognize and see these singers in rehearsal and their community.

 

It’s Fall 2021 and they’ve been singing together– masked and 3 feet apart. His choirs are strong. He was surprised, because he thought there would be a long journey rebuilding. But they spent so much time taking care of each other, creating community and building trust, students returned in the fall and were all in. “I don’t wait for something wrong before I look up to see how something is going,” he says of his philosophy with students, in and out of rehearsal. He says to his students, “All I want you to be is the best version of you today.  I’m not one of those teachers who says leave it all at the door because music will make it all better, because that’s a lie. It can, but it’s a lie to say that’s a [capital T] Truth.”

 

Dr. Fox’s Cultivating Choral Communities workshop series were created specifically for the choral world. Every workshop is different, but begins the same: defining terms. It’s hard to move forward without a shared language. He facilitates conversations about diversity, including but not limited to racial equity. For example, he led sessions with a high school choir about power and proximity to power in the form of friendships. It was transformative and empowering. With organizations, he can empower them to do the work internally– fix processes or challenge curriculum that disenfranchise those that don’t have power. Communication within groups is imperative to this work. People who attend the workshops have varying degrees of knowledge and understanding. The real difficulty is when people are so locked into their own experiences that they aren’t aware of other people’s needs in the space. The dominant narrative in our country is the white perspective. Until we can all come together to have conversations that lead to action, we’re going to be stagnant. His ability lies in consensus building and bridge building.

 

Evaluating the last 18+ months of equity work, it’s evident the choral profession has aligned with the trend to appear as if they are doing something. Part of the work is vetting professionals invited to facilitate ADEIB (Access, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) work. One has to do the work to bear the culture, and being from a culture does not make one a bearer of it. If we aren’t intentional, we can actually exclude people from our organizations; someone observing could say “Oh, that’s who they see as representative of my community” or “It doesn’t seem that the organization has done the work.” Going viral doesn’t mean it’s viable. On the other hand, our profession doesn’t give much leeway for mistakes. As soon as someone does something problematic, they are dropped, without being given any support to grow and change. Some organizations within the choral profession are more thoughtful about this work than others.

 

“How do we support long-term work?” It requires investment of time and thoughtfulness. While a one-off workshop can be important, it’s not just about the music sung; it’s about the words said. There needs to be space/time to talk; only then can we bring in what is needed. We can’t be enticed by expediency. This work doesn’t have an end time. With that commitment, we will begin to prepare people coming into the choral profession. Then maybe in the future, we won’t have to convince people this is a pillar of our organization. We are very concerned with changing the NOW, but there is a generation who have grown up with equity in a way many of us haven’t. Our profession can capitalize on this, and bring major change to the future.

 

“Equity is the action we put in place to achieve equality.”

 

Stories of Healing and Reimagining with Olivia Vestal

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In March 2020, spring break was extended. Olivia Vestal, now a first-year choral teacher in Durham, NC, was supposed to go to Regional NATS. Instead of performing live, she recorded a video, and remembers that was the last thing she did without a mask. After they finished, she wiped down the piano and recording equipment, and asked, “Is this good?” (referring to cleaning).

 

Olivia took the majority of her education courses after COVID had forced classes to change formats. She wasn’t sure how she was going to become the teacher she wanted to become when she wasn’t able to go into schools. Almost all of her courses needed an in person component. She wrote lesson plans she didn’t get to teach and had to give up classroom visits. Instead of observations in schools, she watched people on YouTube. She lost hours of classroom contact.

 

Her student teaching practicum in Spring 2021 began fully online. Many of these virtual days consisted of checking in with students, vocal exercises, and singing music on solfege. She would sing or call on a student to lead a passage, and students would sing with her or the student leader. All of this took time, and there were internet issues. In addition, the school mandated that she couldn’t teach for more than 45 minutes. After a couple months, school moved to cohort groups. Students would come for a week, then the next week another group would come in. The group that was not in-person attended online. Then they moved to all in-person, unless the student had chosen Virtual Academy. Until the dress rehearsal, she didn’t hear all the students sing together. As a student teacher, the only time she had to hear, evaluate, and give immediate feedback to the entire choir was during these rehearsals. She learned how to be flexible. She leaned into building community. She encouraged their exploration of music in addition to building their skills. But she missed out on training her ears, because for much of the time, she didn’t have voices in the room.

 

She continues to field constant change. In her classroom, she implemented risk mitigation measures that she knows will change based on public health. She has envisioned how she would set up her classroom if COVID mitigation strategies were not in place. She also has the normal first-year teacher issues to attend to: obligations that sometimes come to her late or unwritten program expectations, for example. It’s difficult to remember some policy and procedural things. She hasn’t given herself time NOT to work. If something doesn’t go well during the school day, she looks to her own preparedness. She finds herself having a difficult time separating work and being home. She struggles with imposter syndrome, and wonders how COVID affected her preparation to become a teacher– did she get the full experience of a teacher education program and is she really prepared? Despite the newness, her colleagues are supportive and don’t treat her as a novice. She feels a part of the team. She’s also able to connect to her students faster and easier because they’ve shared the online learning experience. Her students will say to her “You get it.”

 

As she builds her program, community is one of her priorities. Part of community building is learning foundations of music together– sight-reading, vocal technique, identifying features of octavos, aural skills. Sometimes community building has looked different than she anticipated. As an example, she had a student speak about being anti-LGBTQ+. She was taken aback by this, because she had never met a student who felt this way (or at least not a student who has expressed it). Her approach was to try to educate the student on how to care about individual people in their community, and what that expression of care might look (or sound) like. 

 

She’s making a point to learn about each student: Who are they and what do they need? She’s trying to understand all identity points, or at least the ones students share. She’s made it a priority to meet all the counselors so she has access to resources and can learn from them. The students are doing listening journals, and the singers pick the music and create the assignment to go along with it. Some music doesn’t have any text, and some music isn’t in English. It’s been a great chance to learn about what the students value and what they need.

 

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