‘It Breaks Our Heart Not to Sing’: How Choirs Are Keeping the Music Alive during Covid

Murray First UMC's Chancel Choir (Screenshot)

Choral singing has become a health hazard – and reuniting isn’t as simple as hopping on Zoom

As anyone who has tried to sing “happy birthday” at a Zoom party this past year can tell you, online audio does not work well with multiple users.

This is because Zoom, like most other video platforms, experiences a 300-millisecond to one-second lag between computers as information gets sent over the internet. The delay renders directing and singing music simultaneously nearly impossible, making the pandemic eerily quiet for the one in six Americans who sing in a choir.

Choral singing – a group activity that requires breathing intensely, within earshot of one another, often while crowded into small rooms – is one of the highest-risk activities for the spread of Covid-19.

Following highly publicized reports of choir rehearsals that turned into tragic super-spreader events, choir singing was one of the first activities to go remote, and experts say it may be the last to come back.

But the longer the pandemic has worn on, the more innovative answers were developed to help choirs sing together again, from drive-in choruses in outdoor parking lots to tech solutions.

“It was amazing to be able to sing with my friends again,” said Ian Bass, a seventh grader in the Ragazzi Boys Chorus, a Silicon Valley choir that has made online rehearsals work through a technology called JackTrip that eliminates the dreaded delay. “Sometimes I forget I am not in a normal practice because it feels so real.” Read More

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