Monadnock Beat

Monadnock Chorus to hold outdoor concert in Putnam Park in Peterborough on Saturday



Monadnock Chorus artistic director Matthew Leese leads a rehearsal in a Peterborough parking lot last month. Courtesy Photo

Communal singing with its potential to increase the spread of COVID-19 has been hit hard by the pandemic. While most community and church choirs are on hold or have gone online for virtual rehearsals and concerts, the Peterborough-based Monadnock Chorus has recently held a series of in-person, albeit outdoor, rehearsals in preparation for an outdoor concert this Saturday.

“The experience of singing together — and the studies that have been done about the hormones that are released — it just doesn’t happen unless you are in-person,” Monadnock Chorus artistic director Matthew Leese said. “Choirs are a family, they are a support group, they are a form of therapy in a way and also a social group. So being together in person is a huge part of it.”

The 60-year-old Monadnock Chorus is performing in Putnam Park during the Monadnock Art Tour taking place in downtown Peterborough Saturday.

“We are performing a movement from a Bach cantata and two pieces that are kind of inspired by current social movements,” Leese said. “We’re singing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ which is widely perceived as the Black National Anthem, and we are singing a spiritual which is ‘Walk Together Children’ to promote unity and happiness.”

Leese also directs several Keene State College choirs and voice programs and is planning a Keene State College choir concert in Keene the following weekend. The concert will take place Oct. 17 in downtown Keene at 3 p.m.

The Monadnock Chorus is performing two sets Saturday, at 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., and are only 10 minutes in length, he said, since it was a time crunch to learn new music with the truncated rehearsal schedule. The group usually begins meeting for rehearsals in September for its traditional mid-December concert, a fairly typical schedule for a community choir.

This year, the members comfortable with in-person rehearsals met in the parking lot of All Saints’ Church’s Reynolds Hall on Concord Street in Peterborough for a series of four Sunday afternoons in a row. Members were also encouraged to participate by rehearsing at home if that was more appropriate for them. The singers that met gathered in smaller groups at stagnated times, stood about 12 feet apart from each other and wore masks, Leese said. So that the singers could hear each other, microphones and speakers were used.

Leese also recommends singers purchase a “singers’ mask” which costs about $25. The masks have been purchased for Keene State College singers through a grant from the college, he said. It is made with a thick cloth with “a built-out structure outside of your mouth and nose so it doesn’t move with your mouth and nose, which is great,” he said.  “It looks funny, it looks like a duckbill … but it definitely makes it a lot easier to sing.”

Singing in-person is not for everyone, Leese said, but communal singing means a great deal to many singers.

“Some people are so desperate to sing together they will do whatever they have to just so they can have that experience. … Other people do not want to compromise themselves or those who they live with,” he said.

The rehearsals weren’t easy at times, he said. It’s amazing how loud planes, a river and cars and trucks are when you are trying to run an outdoor rehearsal.

“I feel really lucky I live here and not in an urban setting where it is nearly impossible to do choral singing,” Leese said, however despite being able to meet in-person, being outside under the precautionary conditions has its challenges. “It is very, very difficult for amateur singers, who are used to being really, really close to each other.” He said, adding, “If you are trying to wait for a quiet moment there just isn’t one when you are outside.”

However, Leese said, singing together in person is so much better than rehearsing at home alone. And while many think online or Zoom rehearsals can be a solution, it really isn’t, he said. While Monadnock Chorus, like many choirs and chorus’ across the country, took to Zoom early in the pandemic and even held its spring concert on Zoom, it is far from ideal, Leese said. Because of the sound delays and differing internet connections and speeds Zoom rehearsals and live concerts are not possible, he said.

“There is no such thing as a Zoom choir,” Leese said. “You can’t rehearse.”

So for the spring concert singers worked independently at home with an audio track and then sent in a video recording of their performance that Leese sliced together for the concert.

But meeting in-person is so important to most choir singers, Leese said, he has worked to make in-person singing possible for the Monadnock Chorus and his Keene State College choirs.

“We’re doing similar things at the college,” he said. “We are doing some inside work with singers 12 feet apart at only 20 minutes at a time. It is a combination of outdoor and indoor groups.”

With the cold weather coming, the Monadnock Chorus plans to move indoors, he said. “We are experimenting with some spaced indoor rehearsals at the Sharon Meeting House, which has a really good exhaust fan.”

Leese said he is not sure what performances this winter will look like but anticipates outdoor holiday, Christmas caroling and community singing in December.

It may be a year or even three years before things go back to normal for singers and choirs, he said.

“Everything has changed, kind of on a weekly basis, sort of since the shutdown happened in March,” he said.

Leese said he remains vigilant on the evolving information about COVID-19 and is ready to pivot if needed.

“As I keep telling the singers in the group we are monitoring the situation in our region daily. If we need to adjust that plan we will adjust that plan. It’s the same at the college. We just have to take it on a daily basis.”

The Monadnock Chorus is performing Saturday, at 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Putnam Park in Peterborough. Singers will be masked and using microphones to make social distancing possible.

Then on Saturday, Oct. 17, the Keene State College Music Department plans to present a “Combined Choir Performance: Ensemble Recital Series” at 3 p.m. Choirs plan to perform with amplification from the Pavilion at Fuller Park at the Keene Rec Center at 312 Washington Street in Keene.

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