Membership
MAKE MUSIC DAY REACHES ACROSS THREE CONTINENTS Valerie Taylor, Master Director, Vocal Dimension Chorus, Region #31
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nternational Make Music Day is a worldwide celebration of music held on June 21st each year. On Make Music Day, everyone is encouraged to sing or play music outside in their neighbourhood or public spaces, to share the joy of music with others. Launched in 1982 in France as the Fête de la Musique, it is now held in more than 120 countries. In previous years my chorus, Vocal Dimension, has taken part in Make Music Day in various different ways. This year, I wanted to celebrate the way that music reaches across boundaries – geographical or otherwise – and highlight the international nature of our organisation. I had an idea that choruses on three different continents could join forces and make music together. I approached Kim Wonders (Metro Nashville, TN, USA) and Lea Baker (Endeavour Harmony, Sydney, Australia) so that, with my own chorus (Vocal Dimension, Surrey, England), we could learn a song and sing it remotely, but together. My original plan was that we would learn a new song and put together a video of our choruses singing the song, whether at rehearsal, in a park, or any other crazy location we could find. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to that! It would have been a huge technological feat to learn a new song and then combine individual videos of almost 200 singers, so a new plan
was hatched to create a video using recordings of a song that we already had. I thought it would be easy to find a song that we all had in common. Turns out that was not the case! The only song that all three choruses had recorded was “Lazy Day”. I used the recordings to create a track that featured each chorus separately, then all three together as if it were a mass sing. That in itself was complicated by the fact that the recordings were in three different pitches and three different tempos! But we got there and, once we had the recording, we were able to video ourselves in our respective rehearsals singing along. With the aid of Zoom, we were able to create something that was almost as good as the original plan! The video itself was compiled by Ella Miskin, the talented daughter of Vocal Dimension’s Marketing Coordinator, Claire Miskin. Ella, who is 16 years old, is studying Creative Media & Film Production at college, and she did a magnificent job. In fact, Ella’s work on various videos for Vocal Dimension was highlighted by her college tutors in her end of year assessment! The result was a wonderful collaboration across the miles. Here’s hoping that in 2021, I can dust off ‘Plan A’ and get the three choruses together again – in person!!
October 2020 |
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