Concord Chorale performs together in person for virtual concert
After months of rehearsing from home over Zoom, and then from their cars in what became known as “driveway rehearsals,” the Concord Chorale is singing together under one roof again.
Last month, 50 Chorale members, along with an instrumentalist group of percussionists, pianists and vocal soloists, gathered in an empty church to perform and record a free virtual concert of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana that will premiere on the Chorale’s YouTube channel on Saturday, July 10.
“Finally being able to hear everyone singing in harmony after spending a year apart was wonderful,” said Regina Wall, a second-year member, singing alto.
Carmina Burana’s iconic opening movement, “O Fortuna,” will be “familiar to essentially everybody,” music director Jenny Cooper said.
“It’s incredibly dramatic,” she said. “It’s been used throughout pop culture and in commercials and movies.”
The piece, which Orff composed in the 1930s, is based on a collection of medieval poetry of the same name, particularly on the text’s recurring theme of “Rota Fortunae,” the theoretical “wheel of fortune” that determines every person’s fate. It’s a timely theme for today, Cooper said.
“I find it really moving to hear the voices of people from so long ago who were also [thinking about] the lack of control that we have in our lives … and were experiencing many of the same feelings that we have now,” she said.
Wall agreed.
“It touches on universal themes … like having life kick you in the butt,” she said. “Even though the words were written hundreds of years ago, they’re still applicable to us today.”
Cooper encouraged members to reflect on the piece’s emotional content and use it as a springboard for cathartic discussion about the current state of the world.
“It really allowed us to dig into some of that anger and fear — fear of the unknown, fear of wondering what’s going to happen — that we’ve all been feeling over the past year and a half,” Cooper said.
Though the traditional arrangement for Carmina Burana includes a full orchestra, Cooper decided to simplify the instrumentation for the virtual performance, but there is one element that she wasn’t willing to trim down.
“The percussion in this piece is so central to the feeling of it,” she said. “Everything from the huge bass drums and the gong to the bells and the glockenspiel — percussion has the ability to give it that full range of feelings, from huge to tiny, from terrifying to intimate.”
The Chorale presented its first virtual concert in January (which is still available to watch online). Since they could not perform together in person, the members recorded themselves performing their individual parts of the piece, and those recordings were spliced together to simulate a unified performance. Cooper said she anticipated having to use the same method for the Carmina Burana concert, but CDC guidelines eased up three weeks before the performance date. The new guidelines permitted the Chorale to rehearse and perform together in person, indoors and unmasked, so long as all members present had received the Covid-19 vaccine.
For the five members who have not been vaccinated, Cooper made accommodations to ensure that they could participate in rehearsals and the upcoming performance; they’ve been joining the in-person rehearsals from home over Zoom, and, for Carmina Burana, they’ll be able to record themselves performing at home, just as they did for the January concert, and have their voices mixed into the audio of the in-person recording.
“I highlighted specific movements in the piece [in which] I thought it would be great to have those extra voices added in,” Cooper said.
The Concord Chorale will continue rehearsing in person and hopes to perform for a live, in-person audience for their next concert in September.
“It’s a conversation that will have to keep going as we see how the virus progresses and the efficacy of the vaccine,” Cooper said, “but I think we’re really well-informed and have been making safe choices, so the plan is to move ahead into a regular in-person season.”
Concord Chorale presents Carmina Burana
Where: Virtually, available to stream on the Chorale’s website and YouTube channel.
When: Saturday, July 10, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, July 11, at 3 p.m. The concert will be available to stream after Sunday on demand for one year.
Cost: Free
More info: Visit concordchorale.org or call 333-5211.
Featured photo: The Concord Chorale. Courtesy photo.
