Our family usually counts down the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas not with days, but with concerts. Twenty in these three weeks of school isn’t out of the ordinary.
Of course, there won’t be anything close to that this year. What’s to come of a December without concerts?
Well, probably a little of a lot of things.
- Virtual choirs will be part of it – as much as I am loath to focus my energy on asking high school students to record at home, it is a solid option to show their work and express their passionate singing.
- Virtual sing-alongs are a good option, too. Why not collaborate with the local Chamber of Commerce to replace some canceled local event with a sing-along everyone can join. There’s no one more qualified to lead it than a choir director. And I’m inclined to think that a slowly sung version of Silent Night might even allow participants to unmute and actually sing together.
- Lots of music is playing on the stereo – music I can sing to. You can, too.
- And a pause isn’t such a bad thing, either. This time is a little like a sabbatical we’re all on, at once. We aren’t doing the normal things, and there’s no way to really replace them. When we acknowledge that fact, it gives us space to accept and appreciate the pause in concertizing, and to really move forward into other ways of being with our students.