Virtual Choir Debuts!

Last night was the video debut and live premiere of the long-in-the-making “vertical” virtual choir project with Maitland Middle School, Winter Park High School and University of Central Florida singers.  The project was the inspiration of Lori Lovell, choral director at Maitland Middle School, who had seen Eric Whitacre’s video and wanted to develop something similar for her own students.  She was the inspiring force of “yes we can” behind the project and quickly brought Matthew Swope, from Winter Park High School, and I together at Starbucks for a planning meeting the beginning of the summer.  The idea of a vertical team of educators from various grade levels in the same discipline working cooperatively to develop and implement the project would bring to young, emerging and mature singers an opportunity to explore technology in the choral classroom and partner together in an exciting and collaborative venture.

What began as a casual conversation over coffee quickly took shape and form, when Tom Todia, the Course Director of Game Sound at Full Sail University (one of the premiere art, music, and film schools in the world) came onboard to facilitate the software for recording and manipulating individual student audio and video.  We wanted a piece that was age and skill appropriate for the youngest singers, yet captured the imagination of the older ones, and a text that told the story of our project and was one that every singer could identify with.  It seemed that the best way for this to happen was to write a new piece.

I contacted my friend, musician and poet Scott Lounsbury in New Hampshire, to see if he had anything that might fit the unique nature of the project and two days later he delivered E PLURIBUS CANTUS, a tremendous text about coming together from many places to form one voice, written just for us.  It took just another two days to compose. 

Many happy circumstances converged with good friend Lynn Peghiny agreeing to play the piano track, former Winter Park High School film student Gabe Gundacker launching a documentary video project about the collaboration, plans for a combined live performance that would showcase the video release, and a session for the Florida Vocal Association at the state FMEA conference.  The conductor video and piano audio tracks were recorded in August, 180 singers’ audio and video individually recorded in September and the editing process in the months following.

This project captured the imaginations of our students, brought technology into our choral classrooms in a very real way, initiated partnership between the public schools, University of Central Florida and Full Sail University, and united younger and older singers of generation Y in a way they had not experienced before.   Communities ringing, each voice joined in singing.

Last night’s performance was the first time that all of us were in the same room at the same time and what a glorious experience it was!  My applause goes to all involved, friends and colleagues Lori Lovell and Matthew Swope, master techno-wizard Tom Todia, and all of our students, whose enthusiasm and love of singing is contagious.  Scott Lounsbury has artfully captured what it feels like to be a singer in a chorus.  E PLURIBUS CANTUS is an anthem to bands of empowered singers everywhere – from many, comes one song.