My choir, the Mission Peak Chamber Singers, opened our virtual May concert up to people all over the world. We’d already planned it, on the topic of homelessness… a topic which is even more brutally timely than ever, as we ponder the ludicrousness of a shelter-in-place order when one’s life does not include the having of…shelter.
Some of our singers joined us at 6 a.m. from Jerusalem. Many of us joined at 8 pm from the Western states, while others straggled in from the East Coast at midnight. It was… not the same as sitting in a room full of people. Many of us felt really weird about being on screen a full hour and a half. Some of us looked exhausted – at the beginning – or the end – of a busy, long day. We got lost. We hit bad notes, and were utterly confused. It was what we had, though, and we are determined to make it work. (You’re welcome to join us.)
zoom: choir rehearsal
staring down a screen
we, joined by untold strangers
sing into the dark