from the president & ceo
It’s Time to #RediscoverHarmony A collaborative social media campaign launching this fall will encourage public support for the choral community.
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hope you have had a chance to rest and recharge this summer, as I and the Chorus America staff have. Our entire office took a break in July after what had been a nonstop year, including not one, but two virtual conferences. Both were great successes; my sincere thanks to everyone who participated in the winter and summer events! I know I’m not alone in appreciating a lot about this summer that I’ve taken for granted in pre-pandemic years. It has felt wonderful to attend outdoor concerts, watch fireworks with neighbors, and wander farmers markets to find the best peaches and tomatoes. While recent news about the status of the pandemic isn’t all positive, I’ve been grateful for every day of greater access to community and greater connection with friends, family, and colleagues. During our Summer Conference in June, I was thrilled to hear choruses’ plans for returning to music making in-person in the coming year as health and safety conditions permit. We’ve shared some of this important discussion in this issue’s “Reopening Considerations” article. I also heard concerns about how long it might take for singers and audiences to feel comfortable returning, given the media attention on the risk of spreading the coronavirus during group singing. And yet, as those of us in the field know so well, choral singing is exactly what our communities need now more than ever! The inclusion, freedom of expression, unity, and joy found in singing together make it the perfect antidote to the isolation and dissonance that we’ve all experienced over the past year—and that’s been so present in society well before the pandemic. To encourage the public to support choruses in their community as in-person concerts and events begin to reopen, I’m excited to share news about #RediscoverHarmony, a collaborative social
The inclusion, freedom of expression, unity, and joy found in singing together make it the perfect antidote to the isolation and dissonance that we’ve all experienced over the past year.
media campaign for the field that we will launch this fall. The campaign is centered on a website: RediscoverHarmony.com. The website will have three main components, all freely available for your chorus and choruses everywhere to use in your own campaigns and messaging: • A location-based directory of choruses so that people can search for—and donate to—organizations in their communities • An interactive tool that lets website visitors play with the voices of real choral singers to create their own chords • A social media toolkit that ensembles, singers, and choral music lovers can customize and use to spread the #RediscoverHarmony word. #RediscoverHarmony began as the brainchild of a group of executive directors who are part of Chorus America’s Leadership Development Forum (LDF), a peer learning group for leaders of large-budget choruses. It’s been a joy to work on this campaign collaboratively with leaders Jean Davidson, Ann McNair, Steve Smith, LDF colleagues and other advisors in the field, and BRINK, the creative agency that is bringing #RediscoverHarmony to life for us. Furthermore, it’s incredibly meaningful to see so many of the large-budget organizations in Chorus America’s membership step up to fund this campaign to benefit the entire field. We’re deeply grateful for their leadership and support, along with sponsorship from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation. We hope this resource will help choruses raise awareness of the myriad benefits they bring to their communities and take public excitement about choruses to a new level. You’ll be hearing much more about this campaign as we prepare for the fall launch. For now, please take a moment to visit rediscoverharmony.com to add your chorus to the location-based directory and share the link with other chorus leaders far and wide. Whatever your chorus’s plans are for this fall, we hope #RediscoveryHarmony can amplify the important work you are doing. Together we can shine a light on our choral community in all its inspiring beauty, diversity, and impact.
Catherine Dehoney President & CEO, Chorus America
www.chorusamerica.org
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