In March 2020, we received news that we would be switching to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time of transition, we wrestled with big questions: How can we continue to stay connected as a community, both socially and musically? How can we continue to support singers and their growth as musicians remotely? Though we were devastated by this feeling of loss, we also believed in the strength of our community and we were committed to building on that. The Harvard Choruses have found ways to stay connected via Zoom rehearsals, small group projects, virtual choir recordings, and more. Here is what we have been up to!
2020-2021 Virtual Academic Year
Virtual Choir Recording Projects
The Harvard Glee Club, Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and Radcliffe Choral Society each released virtual choir recordings over the course of the year – spanning genres and time periods, in collaboration with musicians both within and outside of Harvard, featuring world premieres, and including different mediums of visual art and design.
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Hand in Hand Concerts
For more than a century, choruses from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities have celebrated their deep friendship with a season of collaborative concerts during the fall semester. In October 2020 and May 2021 we continued to honor this tradition at a time of extraordinary change and challenge with two virtual benefit concerts: Hand in Hand.
Both concerts featured virtual performances from the choruses of all three schools as well as a newly commissioned work. The October concert featured a new arrangement of The Isley Brothers' Caravan of Love arranged by Brandon Waddles. The May concert featured a new arrangement by Tim Keeler, Music Director of Chanticleer, of favorite songs from all three Universities entitled Songs of Home.
Both concerts featured virtual performances from the choruses of all three schools as well as a newly commissioned work. The October concert featured a new arrangement of The Isley Brothers' Caravan of Love arranged by Brandon Waddles. The May concert featured a new arrangement by Tim Keeler, Music Director of Chanticleer, of favorite songs from all three Universities entitled Songs of Home.
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Rising Voices Festival
The Radcliffe Choral Society hosted the first virtual installment of their Rising Voices Festival over Zoom in April 2021. The festival engaged choirs from across the United States: ComMUSICation, Sister Cities Girlchoir, Boston Children's Chorus, Pihcintu, and San Francisco Girls Chorus. Participants interacted with singers from each group as well as professional guest artists through workshops. Singers participated in up to four, 40-minute workshop ‘blocks’. Each block offered workshops revolving around the themes of Music & Society, Traditions & Transformation, You & Your Voice, and Singing & Creating. The festival concluded with a virtual performance consisting of virtual choir recordings from each participating ensemble as well as new, collaboratively composed songs as a part of the festival's collaborative songwriting workshops with Dr. Martha Gonzalez.
Unmute the Choirs: Singing Together, Miles Apart
Check out this podcast that Rising Voices Festival Workshop Team member, Julia Losner ('21), created about this year's Rising Voices Festival
Check out this podcast that Rising Voices Festival Workshop Team member, Julia Losner ('21), created about this year's Rising Voices Festival
Cambridge Common Voices
Cambridge Common Voices (CCV) has continued to make music together via Zoom throughout the year. Each week we greet each other in song, warm-up our voices and practice singing through various activities, and often break into groups to create our own music. CCV has created multiple virtual choir projects over the course of the year. In May 2021, CCV released the world premiere virtual choir performance of Karen Siegel's REUNION, in collaboration with Joyful Noise, Central Illinois Youth Chorus, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. To learn more about CCV and their ongoing projects, please visit www.singatharvard.com/ccv.
Holden voice Program
The Holden Voice Program has continued to grow in technique, artistry, and musicianship through online voice lessons. Students in HVP were able to participate in virtual lessons with their voice teachers, Fall and Spring live streamed recitals, Senior Showcases, masterclasses with numerous guest artists, and singer sessions led by current HVP singers.
Harvard Choruses New Music Initiative
The Harvard Choruses New Music Initiative (HCNMI) offers undergraduate composers the opportunity to create choral music for the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard Glee Club. The 2020-2021 academic year marked the fifth year of the program. During the virtual year, HCNMI continued online, under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Robert Kyr and Dr. Andrew Clark, with student composers creating music that emerged out of their study of “sonic healing,” which combined the best practices of music composition and performance with the science of healing as revealed through neuroscience.
HCNMI Student Composers & Compositions:
HCNMI Student Composers & Compositions:
- Ian Chan & Chloe Levine: If the Other Do for soprano solo, mixed chorus & piano
- Eddie Raj: Cycles for high voices & piano
- Devon Gates: Meditation on 1 Corinthians 13 for solo voice & mixed chorus
- Chinyere Obasi: Tranquility: Sudden, Vast, Candescent for high voices
- Jenny Yao & Harry Sage: (sky-sound) for low voices & organ
- Tyler Rand: Adam Rising for low voices & cello
