What a crazy adventure this has been.
On the morning of Wednesday, March 11, I boarded a plane heading to Mobile, Alabama. I was excited about the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Southern Division conference, my students' upcoming performance, and planning for a crazily ambitious end-of-the-year concert. The next three days were surreal. Each hour brought more bad news. Things changed rapidly. The conference was shortened, and the Honor Choir's performance was moved ahead to Friday evening. That was the last live music performance I heard. When we finally "returned" to school, one thought repeated in my mind: "Keep singing, keep making music." So we did. We practiced our sight singing. We sang for each other over Google Meet and sent good vibes to each other through the chat (seriously, the chat transcripts are veritable fonts of positivism), and we recorded songs and compiled the tracks for virtual choir. No hard due dates, no criticism, just music.
When I got the news that my students were selected to perform for the conference, I was overjoyed to share that with them, but also terrified of how we might make it happen. We were holding out hope for a return to in-person instruction, even if not until January, so we could record our performance synchronously. It quickly became clear that wouldn't happen, so we committed to creating a virtual performance. I was nervous, but there wasn't time for that. I remained a positive and encouraging voice for my students. After all, all we had to do was keep singing, keep making music.
We don't have some grand artistic statement or insightful story to tell with this concert. "Shine on Me" was chosen in a moment of panic. It was the answer to the question "What do I have that I know we can get done, and maybe some of my students have sung before?" "Rise" was suggested by Lori Knapke and tied into a project that our art students were completing. Over the past few years, one of our goals was to include more music from the Arabic-speaking world, and "Fog Elna Khel" had been in that stack on my desk (I know you all have one) for a little while. "Esta Tierra" was one of the pieces I heard performed at the conference in Mobile. So is the program artistically inspired? Is it meticulously programmed? Maybe not. But I haven't seen my students in 11 months, and still they made it happen. They kept singing, they kept making music. That, to me, is a huge success.
This group of young people you are about to see and hear are nothing short of astonishing. They are resilient, persistent, and phenomenal young musicians. This concert was recorded in living rooms, bedrooms, closets, parks, and backyards. It was recorded on days when the world seemed like it was falling apart. It was recorded during class, at 2 a.m. on a Saturday, and every hour in between. Collectively, they recorded more than 500 hours of independent practice to make this performance possible. I could not be more proud of each and every one of them and how they have persevered, coped, and overcome.
James Russell Cooper, Director