Resurrecting Song:
A Pathway Forward for the Choral Art in the Time of Pandemics

Wendy K. Moy

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“It’ll be interesting, and I think important to document this. In 10 years, we’ll look back and maybe see more clearly what we were up against and what we did, and hopefully,
what we did better and what we lost.”

-former ACDA Executive Director Tim Sharp

Chapters

  1. Community Choirs: Loss and Hope

  2. Children and Youth Choirs: Resiliency in Action

  3. Collegiate Choirs: Reconceptualizing the Choral Rehearsal

  4. Professional Singers: Grief and Innovation

  5. Professional Choirs: Reimagining the Art

  6. New Choirs: Inspired to Create

  7. Choral Organizations: Resurrecting Song

Dr. Wendy K. Moy is an assistant professor of music education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Education at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on the culture of singing communities and diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging in the choral rehearsal. Routledge Publishing will soon release her book “Resurrecting Song: A Pathway Forward for the Choral Art in the Time of Pandemics.” Oxford University Press published her ethnographic study of the Seattle Men’s Chorus in “Together in Music: Coordination, Expression, Participation.” Moy has written for the National Association for Music Education’s “Music in a Minuet” blog, The Choral Journal and the Music Educators Journal. She has also been interviewed for featured articles in The Choral Journal, The Voice of Chorus America, The Classical Singer Magazine, and Teaching Music Journal on entrepreneurship and culture-building in the choral arts. She is also the Co-Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Chorosynthesis Singers. They released the album Empowering Silenced Voices on Centaur Records and established the Empowering Silenced Voices Database. Moy is active as a presenter, guest conductor, and clinician.

Through a collection of extensive interviews with choral conductors, educators, singers, and professional leaders, this book documents the choral music community’s journey through crisis and change during the COVID-19 pandemic and aids in its rebuilding in a new era where COVID-19 is endemic.

When the pandemic emerged in early 2020, the impact on choral music was immediate and devastating, as the act of gathering and singing together became a source of contagion and potential severe illness or death. Weaving together a wide range of first-person accounts, this book addresses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on choral music across contexts including community choruses, professional choirs, children and youth choirs, school choirs, and choral organizations. In their own words, we hear how the community responded to the challenges and banded together to innovate, use technology in new ways, and generate changes to practice. The book also explores how the pandemic caused many directors to realize that they needed to create a more inclusive place of belonging in their rehearsals, and provides reflections on the philosophy of singing and creating a choral community.

Documenting both pandemic experiences and the lessons learned from surviving and thriving, this book showcases the resilience of choral music and helps point the way to new directions for the choral community in the wake of the pandemic.

Interviewees

  • Hilary Apfelstadt - Professor Emerita, University of Toronto, former Interim Executive Director, American Choral Directors Association

  • Sandra Babb - Associate Professor of Choral Music Education, Oregon State University

  • Martín Benvenuto - Artistic Director, 21V

  • Sarah Brailey - Soprano; Director of Vocal Studies, The University of Chicago

  • Yvette Adam Burdick - Artistic Director, Skagit Valley Chorale; former Choir Director, North Seattle College

  • Melanie Cometa - Director of Choirs, Ledyard High School

  • Cory Davis - Artistic Director, One Voice Chorus of Charlotte

  • Catherine Dehoney - President & CEO, Chorus America

  • Dominick DiOrio - Artistic Director, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia; Professor of Music, Indiana University; Past President, National Collegiate Choral Organization

  • Kellori R. Dower - Dean of Visual and Performing Arts, Cypress College; Associate Faculty of Choral Music Education, Longy School of Music of Bard College; President, National Collegiate Choral Organization

  • Adam Faruqi - tenor

  • Jason Max Ferdinand - Director of Choral Activities, University of Maryland, College Park; former Director of Choral Activities, Professor of Music, Chair of the Department of Music, Oakwood University; Artistic Director, Jason Max Ferdinand Singers

  • Katherine FitzGibbon - Artistic Director, Resonance Ensemble, Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, Lewis & Clark College; President-elect, National Collegiate Choral Organization

  • Derrick Fox - Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Creative Endeavors and Professor of Choral Conducting, Michigan State University; former Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Associate Professor of Music, University of Nebraska-Omaha

  • David Fryling - Director of Choral Activities, Hofstra University

  • Joshua Habermann - former Chorus Director, Dallas Symphony Chorus; Artistic Director, Santa Fe Desert Chorale

  • Arreon Harley-Emerson - CEO and Artistic Director, Elevate Vocal Arts; former Director of Music and Operations, Choir School of Delaware; President and CEO, Equity Sings

  • T.J. Harper - Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral Activities, Chair of the Department of Music, Loyola Marymount University

  • Crossley Hawn - soprano

  • Craig Hella Johnson - Artistic Director, Conspirare; Music Director, Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble; Artist in Residence, Texas State University

  • Allen Henderson - Executive Director, National Association of Teachers of Singing

  • Robyn Hilger - Executive Director, American Choral Directors Association

  • Jeff Horenstein - Director of Choirs, Meadowdale High School

  • Andrew Howell - Music Director, The Chorus of Westerly

  • Stephen Lancaster - Baritone; Associate Professor of the Practice and Head of the Graduate Voice Studio, University of Notre Dame

  • Brian Lynch - Public Relations Manager, Barbershop Harmony Society

  • Jane Ramseyer Miller - Artistic Director, GALA (LGBTQ) Choruses; former Artistic Director, One Voice Mixed Chorus-Minneapolis

  • Kate Maroney - Mezzo-soprano; Voice Faculty, Mannes School of Music; Voice Instructor, Yale University

  • Michele Moore - General Music and Choir Teacher, Irwin Elementary School

  • Mark Mummert - Cantor, Trinity Lutheran Church of Worchester

  • Donald Nally - Conductor, The Crossing

  • Charlotte Reese - Director of Choirs, Edmonds-Woodway High School and College Place Middle School

  • Troy Robertson - Director of Choirs, Tarleton State University

  • Eugene Rogers - Associate Professor of Music, Director of University Choirs, University of Michigan; Artistic Director, The Washington Chorus; Director, EXIGENCE

  • Tim Sharp - former Executive Director, American Choral Directors Association

  • Carrie Tennant - Artistic Director, Vancouver Youth Choir

  • Andre Thomas - Emeritus Professor, Florida State University; former Visiting Professor of Conducting and Yale Camerata Interim Conductor, Yale University; Past President, American Choral Directors Association; Associate Artist, London Symphony Orchestra

  • James Weaver - Director of Performing Arts and Sports, the National Federation of State High School Associations

  • Beth Willer - Associate Professor and Director of Choral Studies, Peabody Conservatory; Artistic Director, Lorelei Ensemble

  • Tracy Wong - Assistant Professor of Choral Studies, Western University; former Assistant Professor, Music, McMaster University