Young Musicians Chorus

April 7, 2020

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Dear families of Young Musicians Chorus,

It’s looking like schools will be closed for the year. I’m not sure, yet, what that means for YMC, but for certain we won’t be holding any more in-person sessions this semester.

I consider us to have only done five rehearsals. Other groups are keeping the full tuition; their survival depends on it. I don’t feel right doing that, so I propose these three options:

Option 1)   YMC can credit this semester’s prorated tuition toward next semester.
Option 2)   If you need us to, YMC can reimburse the prorated portion of the tuition.
Option 3)   You can let us keep the remainder of the tuition. This option would certainly be appreciated! YMC has already incurred the full semester’s expenses. It being our first season, we felt pretty lucky to break even but now, like so many other arts organizations, we are looking at a different situation.

The much more important question is: Now what? How do we maintain our community and keep the music at least simmering for our kids?

Some choral organizations have been attempting to hold ‘rehearsals’ online. I’ve been developing online teaching skills with my San Francisco Boys Chorus group. What I’ve learned is that there are two fundamental problems with online (eg Zoom) rehearsals: 1) Lag time makes singing together impossible and 2) Zoom-conferencing is limited to one voice at a time. Under such circumstances, real-time ensemble work isn’t possible. The experience of one’s voice being part of a much bigger whole isn’t something we can do. The closest we can come – what all the ensembles are doing (including YWCP, PEBCC, SF Opera, and even instrumental ensembles like YPSO and Crowden’s chamber music program) – is either ‘make music’ on mute together, or listen to one student at a time.

That said, my students were really happy to see each other, eager to participate in our warm-ups and other routines. They visibly brightened. It could be the result of something as simple as the breathing exercises that we do at the beginning or maybe it was that they got to sing even if it was, in effect, solo, or maybe it was a social thing. Whatever it was, parents wrote to say how much the boys enjoyed meeting, despite the online venue.

My conclusion: Online rehearsals are a poor substitute for the real thing. But they’re better than no rehearsal at all.

One thing I have been doing is digitally assembling solo recordings of my SFBC boys. I’m planning on something similar with Collegium. For students to make solo recordings, they have to solidify their parts at home by practicing with learning recordings – that requires a kind of commitment that is challenging under even the best of circumstances. But if there is interest, we could try something like this with A and B Musica. Or we could keep our singing lower-key, but still use our voices.

Another thing that has actually been effective in my online teaching has been music theory, particularly sight reading. I have Kodály certification in music pedagogy, and have taught music theory for 22 years. So, though it lacks the transcendent joy that comes with bringing voices together, this is certainly something we can do with our kids that keeps them learning, singing, deep breathing, and growing as musicians.

Please rest assured that, one way or another, YMC will be here for your kids when things open up again. In the meantime, I’m amenable to the idea of getting together online, which I wouldn’t consider true rehearsal but, rather, just a way to keep our singers in the mental space of being musicians. Please let me know if your child would be interested in meeting at our usual time online, as well as any other thoughts, and I’ll get back to all of you with a plan.

In solidarity,

-Betsy