“What’s the best way to sing the word America? The members of the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale, who are not sacrificing good diction to this pandemic, discussed the proper enunciation,” writes Cassie Owens in Thursday’s (3/26) Philadelphia Inquirer. “ ‘Somebody type in one thing you need to be thinking about in that [musical] phrase,’ Jeffrey Smith told the choir. Then the choir’s artistic director waited for their responses to appear in a Zoom chat box. ‘Yes, Uh-MEH-rih-KUH,’ Smith demonstrated…. ‘America, America, God shed his grace on thee.’ … During the coronavirus pandemic … The boys’ choir’s four ensembles have been hosting nine Zoom rehearsals every week, while its sister organization, Philadelphia Girls Choir, is running roughly 14 among its four ensembles [rehearsing] virtually … with roughly 300 kids, and no way to sync up voices…. Without the ability to get multiple feeds to work in perfect unison, organizers prevent all-out cacophony by having members watch, for the most part, on mute and sing on their own.… ‘Everything else in the world has stopped, and we’re still able to do rehearsal,’ said 13-year-old Oliver Jackson of South Philadelphia. ‘After a day of nothing, you can go into rehearsal and sing.’ ”
Change font size
