The resilience and resourcefulness of artists and musicians is often made more apparent in times of challenge. Here at Trinity Western University, students and alumni have been pioneering new creative avenues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch the TWU virtual choir perform "Passion Prayer", composed and conducted by Chloé Thiessen:
Musicans creatively adapting to new challenges
In the midst of a pandemic, artists and musicians like Chloé Thiessen and her colleagues are challenging themselves in new ways. After in-person performances were cancelled and her classes moved online in the middle of March, Thiessen moved home to Calgary, A.B. to complete the remainder of her semester. This summer, she learned how to build a computer with help from her father. Her first project was to power up a home studio in Calgary, A.B.
Thiessen is a BA Music student at Trinity Western’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture (SAMC), pursuing a double major in vocal performance and piano, and a skilled tubist.
“A group of students, myself included, began organizing small numbers of musicians who could rehearse in pairs and trios, while others started forming collaborative duos,” she said, recounting the early days of her virtual choir project.
Sharing hope through music
Thiessen's virtual choir project first began as a response to the pain and confusion of this past year.
“The turmoil of death, loss, social injustice and division has left so many people broken, hurting and alone, especially in the past several months,” she said. “I wanted to share a message of hope and solace.”
She was among those inspired to provide a meaningful response to world events. “I decided that the quiet heartbreak of the choir members needed to be met with something—anything, to keep us singing ‘together’ and staying connected.”
“Hence,” she said, “my virtual choir project was born.”
Bringing "Passion Prayer" to life
Fittingly, Thiessen chose the Passion Prayer as the inspiration for her choral project. Sung in Latin, it translates to “Lord Father: Open our hearts so that we may know, by Christ’s death on the cross, that we are made free in your glory.”
Thiessen explained, “Freedom from sin includes the wonderful gift of rejoicing with others by expressing Christ’s unbound, unwavering, unending love to those around us. In times when everyone is scared, concerned, and hurting, it is our duty and pleasure to love and care for each other and the earth."
"To me, that is what faith is about,” she said.
Thiessen hopes that the text in her composition can be a reminder for people “to evaluate our own thoughts, and then fill our hearts with the same grace and love that Jesus showed us."
Adventures in virtual choral life
Thiessen shared some of the unique aspects of building a virtual choir.
“Most of [the singers] sang in their homes, and it was actually really lovely to see people in such an intimate space while singing the piece,” she said.
The magic happens when the recordings are compiled.
“The singers recorded themselves and sent their audio files to me, which I layered on the other audio files, edited, and mixed,” Thiessen explained. Thiessen was able to preserve much of the original quality of her singer’s voices. “To be honest, the signers were so expressive in their recordings and followed the conducting video so well that I hardly had to do any correction editing at all!”
There were lighthearted moments as well. “Because remote choirs require technology to cooperate on the singer’s end as well as the editor’s, I had my fair share of laughs listening to people’s recordings and suddenly hearing a family pet meowing or barking in the background.”
Building a song ‘brick by brick’
Although the absence of the choral group dynamic is a challenge, Thiessen discovered that she now had the benefit of working with individual voices more closely.
“I thought that the inability to hear everyone at once would make it hard to fully envision the project,” she said, “but being able to take time with each singer’s recording helped me learn more about the voice and the ergonomics of choral writing, while also hearing the piece come together ‘brick by brick.’”
The virtual choir came together without the singers ever having a single group practice – yet Thiessen found that the results were surprisingly wonderful.
“I left expressive interpretation largely up to the individual and was originally concerned that the parts wouldn’t fit stylistically without a proper rehearsal together,” she said, “but the performers were so incredibly sensitive to the music that each part complimented the other beautifully.”
Bringing the choir together
Composing for virtual choirs also presented new opportunities that are not possible for in-person choirs – opportunities such as having the same person sing multiple parts.
“Because my piece splits into more than nine parts, I told everyone to record as many audio files of whichever vocal lines they wanted to,” Thiessen explained. “This created a really interesting blend where, for example, one person is singing Soprano 1, Soprano 2, and Alto 2. Most of the men sang at least two parts if not three or all four that were written.”
With everyone socially distanced, Thiessen replicated the roles of a conductor and accompanist. “In order for a virtual choir to be well-organized, they need a common accompaniment to sing to. As a pianist, I played and recorded a reduction of all the parts, and then filmed myself conducting along with the accompaniment, so the singers also had visual cues for breaths and pauses.”
Seeking progress and growth in every season
Thiessen and the singers in her virtual choir exemplify the resilience of musicians, who are able to open new paths when a former one is closed.
Thiessen recounted the many plans that were cancelled, “The concert program in the spring semester that was supposed to be my ‘global premiere’ was also supposed to be my friend’s conducting premiere. Another friend was preparing for a solo in a partially staged work we were preparing.”
Yet Thiessen and others didn’t let their disappointments stifle their creativity. “I felt a nagging sense over this summer that I shouldn’t let the absence of a live audience keep me or anyone else from creating art. If anything, these projects kept me striving for progress and growth.”
TWU singers continue to look forward to the return of live concerts. “Of course I would like to hear my music sung live at some point, but during these times when the health and safety of everyone involved is of the utmost importance, the virtual choir project was far more successful and encouraging than I had hoped for.”
“To be able to hear a group of singers turn some notes on a page and a vision in your head into reality is a blessing that I never would have dreamt of a few years ago,” she said.
Here are the TWU singers involved in Thiessen’s virtual choir, and their location at the time of recording in Summer 2020:
Anna-Marie Ryan (alum, Agassiz)
Meg Tobert (student, Vancouver)
Chloé Thiessen (student, Calgary)
Audrey Loeffler (student, California)
Andrew Whiteside (alum, Vancouver)
Daniel Aguero (alum, Langley)
Colin Jamieson (alum, Langley)
Brad Thompson (student, Langley)
Joel Tranquilla (TWU Director of Choral Activities, Langley)
Read this story in the Langley Advance Times.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to establish meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. It is a fully accredited research institution offering liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has five campuses and locations: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, Ottawa, and Bellingham, WA. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vital faith community committed to forming leaders to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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