W&J Choir to honor COVID victims in performance of ‘Requiem’
“I have learned so many new technology skills,” according to Susan Medley, director of choral activities and professor of music at Washington & Jefferson College.
She adds, however, “I hope I never have to use them again.”
The last year has been challenging in many occupations, and choir directors would have to be near the top of the list. Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic landed in the United States in early 2020, it became clear that having people gathered in one spot and singing robustly was one of the most horribly efficient ways to spread COVID-19. Over the last 13 months, choirs have had to retreat to the virtual realm for safety’s sake, and the choir at W&J is no exception.
“When I think of dangerous jobs, I think of the person changing the lightbulbs at the top of the Empire State Building, not being a choir director,” Medley said. “But here we are.”
Nevertheless, the W&J Choir and Camerata Singers are forging ahead with their spring choral concert, acknowledging the pandemic both in the choice of material and in the way it is presented. Starting today, their performance of John Rutter’s “Requiem” will be available on W&J’s YouTube channel and stay there through May 23.
Adapting to the need to stay socially distant, the concert was recorded with most of the singers apart from one another. Lara McGill, a W&J voice instructor, performed her soprano solo part with a seven-member ensemble of instrumentalists at Glenshaw Presbyterian Church in Glenshaw, and the choir consisting of W&J students, faculty and alumni handled their parts separately, using the recording made in Glenshaw as a guide and a recording of Medley conducting.
If recording and rehearsing parts separately is hardly ideal for a choral concert, it did allow for alumni living as far away as Wisconsin and Scotland to participate. The participants, who were students as long ago as 1987 and as recently as 2020, were informed online that they could take part, and 10 of them took up the offer. During rehearsals, the Scottish participant was even willing to Zoom in at 1 a.m. their time to take part.
They were eager to participate, Medley said, for “the experience of doing something artistic and filling up your soul.”
“Requiem” mixes parts of the Latin Requiem Mass with psalms and verses from the Bible, and was composed by Rutter in 1985 following the death of his father. “A beautiful and moving work,” according to Medley, W&J’s choir will be performing it as a tribute to the thousands of people in the United States and around the world who have died as a result of COVID-19.
And while technology has allowed concerts to happen that would have been impossible if the pandemic had hit, say, 30 years ago, Medley is eager for the pandemic to end so she can get back to the classroom.
“I miss my students,” she said. “I miss being in the same room as them.”