VProvost Students, Thursday, March 12, 2020, 4:38 PM:

“The University has recommended that all discretionary events, not required as part of courses and academic requirements, should be cancelled or postponed. The safety of the University community is our priority.”

As soon as I received this email in my inbox, my mind went straight to the two clubs I co-managed last semester, one of them being the Innis College Choir. I was worried. I was worried that we would not be able to showcase our collective talent and effort that we put in since the beginning of winter semester. However, I was still hoping. Hoping that the situation would get better.

University of Toronto President, Friday, March 13, 2020, 11:13 AM:

“We have decided to cancel all in-person undergraduate and research-stream Masters and Doctoral courses across U of T’s three campuses, and we will provide that teaching by other means (which may include existing online platforms).”

Then, I remember vividly, the next morning while I was manning my desk at the Innis College IT Support, I got this email from the U of T President. It stated that all in-person classes would be cancelled and that the campus would be pretty much shut down beginning March 16, the following Monday. 

For any other club, the news of a campus-wide shutdown might not be as huge of a deal as it is to a choir—we only did things in-person. For those who don’t know, we usually hold in-person rehearsals once a week. We also have one grand concert at the end of each semester to showcase what we have learned, with many members performing their own solo/duet pieces. So, the April concert that we had originally planned was pretty much cancelled from the looks of this email.

As the Co-Directors of Innis Choir, Effie Liang and I immediately went into panic mode over Facebook messenger both that Thursday and Friday. We both knew that we had limited time to make a decision since our weekly choir rehearsals fell on Fridays. We didn’t want to force our commuter members to risk their health to come all the way to campus, but we also didn’t want to suddenly end our rehearsals completely. We were at a crossroads seven hours before our rehearsal.

In the span of about ten minutes from when we received President Gertler’s email, we made a decision to make this last rehearsal of the semester optional, so that those who didn’t want to travel to campus could stay at home. Additionally, we decided to record whatever we learned during that rehearsal. We were grateful that our members all came so prepared in their all-black attire with water bottles, understanding, and positivity. We were able to record three songs we had learned by that time using my poorly-set-up studio microphone and my cell phone camera. 

When I asked Effie to reflect on this day, she said, “In March, my initial thoughts were that COVID-19 was an issue to be taken seriously but also that it meant our plans for the concert were halted. As much as I wished I could co-direct our second concert with Tony, we needed to come up with an alternative that satisfied all our members. We spent the winter semester preparing choral songs and other pieces, and we wanted to showcase everyone’s hard work. The virtual ‘concert’ was pre-recorded on limited resources with Tony’s microphone and phone. It was the best we could do in that short amount of time, and I feel like everyone was glad to have a chance to sing together one last time before the university closed.” 

Fast forward to the summer, both Effie and I had agreed to discuss alternative virtual rehearsal plans in case we can’t host any in-person rehearsals. When faced with something so unprecedented and so new, we felt challenged but also inspired. As one could imagine, coordinating online rehearsals for any choir would be extremely difficult. In fact, some of the other musical groups on campus had decided to cancel their entire year due to the technical difficulties caused by COVID-19. But for us, we were ready to make a virtual choir happen.

In the span of four months, we scheduled countless meetings—most of them up to three or four hours—where we were just brainstorming new and possible ideas to implement in this virtual environment. We reached out to the Orientation Coordinators to see if they could help us promote Innis Choir. They did an impeccable job advertising all the ICSS clubs, which we really appreciated. We scheduled meetings with our returning members to ask for their inputs on a virtual choir, and again, we were glad almost all returning members were still interested even if we hosted rehearsals completely online. 

Then, we realized we had to address the problem of technology. Connection issues can interfere with beats and rhythms, which meant having a live pianist for online rehearsals would be impractical. Given me and my Co-Director’s background in acapella, we decided to start learning acapella songs to test the waters. 

When I asked Effie to reflect on this journey, she said, “When I heard about the fall semester closures, rather than feeling discouraged, I actually felt excited to plan something that hadn’t been done before. Virtual choir practice is certainly different than an in-person rehearsal due to the technological restraints and time availability for members, especially those who live in different time zones. The summer planning process was definitely challenging, but right now, it feels gratifying to have community feedback towards how we can run more efficient and fun rehearsals.”

Completely beyond of my expectations, a lot of people showed up to our first rehearsal of the 2020 fall semester, where we went over what our club is about. The following week, we started learning actual music and singing, which was much more difficult. The lagging Internet made it troublesome to play my MIDI keyboard and nearly impossible to sing as a group. However, what surprised me the most was the commitment and talent of our members. Not only were they able to learn the music on their own, but they also supported each other with such welcoming and positive attitudes. 

Our initial goal for virtual choir was never to ask members to master singing or memorize songs. Instead, we really wanted to foster an inclusive and relaxing environment for people to socialize, de-stress, and have fun through music. We’re so glad our members are enjoying themselves. “I really enjoy the collaborative process between students online, and it was one of the things I was looking forward to”, says Effie. “Learning music and singing in choirs has been a stress reliever of mine, and being a first-year student having online university classes is also a new experience that brings on a lot of stressors. Our goal is to provide a safe, inclusive space where folks can learn about music and more techniques on how to sing better. As Co-Directors, Tony and I wanted to focus on community outreach and providing a non-academic activity that first years and upper years alike could participate in. Building relationships between our members and fostering a small yet close community of music lovers is how Innis Choir functions as a club at Innis College.”

To echo what Effie had said, we are a non-auditioned choir, so even if you just want to pop in and sing something or simply learn about singing and music, you are more than welcome to join us! This semester, our rehearsals are completely online on Zoom on Fridays from 6 PM to 8 PM. For anyone interested in joining, feel free to email us at inniscollegechoir@gmail.com

Lastly, I want to personally thank everyone who helped us make virtual choir a reality. This includes the ICSS for providing us funds, the Orientation Coordinators for promoting us during Orientation Week, my Co-Director Effie for making everything so easy for me, and our lovely members!