Nine-year-old Elijah Versteeg is sad about his Christmas choral concert this year. Instead of singing carols with his friends in a tinsel-strewn Inverness church with his family and friends in the audience, he’ll sit down in his living room, mute his computer, don headphones and sing into the void.
Battered by shifting and complex Covid restrictions, children’s choirs across the country have tried to come up with alternatives to their traditional Christmas concerts. Some have triumphed but others say they are exhausted, “hanging by a thread” after nine months of restrictions and at risk of closure.
“Last year was my first Christmas choir concert and I really loved it. It was special to stand up with my whole choir and all sing together,” said Elijah. “I’m disappointed I can’t do it this year. Online is OK but it’s not the same.”
An online concert is not the perfect solution for another reason: the time-lag common to all screen-sharing platforms means children cannot sing together. Instead they must mute themselves, meaning they can’t hear each other sing.
It also leaves conductors to conduct in front of a split screen showing dozens of silently mouthing children. John Thomson, the choir director for Elijah’s National Youth Choir of Scotland’s Inverness branch, admitted this was “far from ideal”.
Thomson will try to introduce a festive feel to Elijah’s concert this week by dressing as a sparkly penguin. “We’re going to do our best to create that festive feel, despite all the challenges,” he said buoyantly.
Bristol Beacon, the centre of live music in Bristol, has faced the situation down by embracing the new online opportunities it generates. On 14 December it held a virtual concert featuring more than 1,000 children from 34 primary classes across Bristol, including pupils from Elmfield School for Deaf Children and pupils from the Hearing Impaired Resource Base, who took part using British Sign Language.
Each school was recorded and videoed live, with their screens broadcasting the images straight back to the children, showing each school in turn. The technology enabled every child to see other children performing across Bristol – although they couldn’t hear them singing.
Laurie Stewart, the vocal and instrumental strategy manager for Bristol Beacon, said the event was “amazing”. “I’ve been astonished by the children’s willingness to rehearse and sing online,” she said. “It’s like a Joe Wicks activity: they put their all into it, even though they can’t hear each other and the conductor can’t hear them.”
Julian Wilkins, the chorus conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra youth choir, is working to put together separate recordings by 120 singers and orchestra members in a film to be released on Christmas Eve.
“We’ve got more adventurous about what can be done online,” said Wilkins. “We recorded the orchestra playing live, spread out in the Symphony Hall last week, and have sent that recording to the choir to use as a backing track. They then send me their recordings, and I’ll sync the whole lot together.”
The New London Children’s Choir is offering children the opportunity to unmute themselves during their final online Christmas party and perform to the rest of the choir. The Oxford Youth Choirs and the Junior Guildhall choir have also opted for prerecorded, online concerts.
Naveen Arles, the musical director of the London International Gospel Choir, is also trying an online event but is less optimistic. “We’ve tried to keep the energy and laughter alive but it’s not easy,” she said. “Musically, it’s just not as fulfilling as a live performance.”
Some choirs have managed to prevail over the regulations and find a safe way to hold real-life concerts. The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain (NYCGB) will be performing in Carols at the Royal Albert Hall, in a socially distanced version of the event live-streamed to audiences at home.
It will be the first time the NYCGB have met in person for an entire year. “The whole essence of choral singing is singing together and we have sorely missed that,” said Ben Parry, the artistic director and principle conductor.
Matthew Watts, the musical director of the Primrose Hill Children’s Choirs, has also managed to organise a real-life Christmas concert. He said it had taken him hours in risk assessments but he was confident it would be worth it. “It was immensely complicated to arrange but I was determined to end this year with a morale-boosting event,” he said.
But Helen Davies, the musical director of the acclaimed Kaos Signing Choir for deaf and hearing children, said her choir was struggling. This year was the choir’s 25th anniversary but the celebrations had to be cancelled and membership of the choir has fallen from 180 children to fewer than 60 in the past nine months. “The truth is that we’re hanging by a thread,” she said.
