” I work as a conductor for a Finnish Choir (based in the capital, Helsinki) called Värinä Chamber Choir. We are a mixed choir of 35 singers, and we sing classical choral repertoire from renaissance music up to modern music from our days.
During the corona pandemic, we have kept on having rehearsals via video conference program Zoom. We gather in Zoom approximately every other week. As we can not have normal rehearsals now, we have tried to make the most out of this exceptional situation.
We have had a workshop on rhytmic choir music with a specialist in this field. We had a live session with a singing teacher, who answered our questions (all kinds of questions varying from how to sing high/low notes to how to practice singing home with small children). We had a theory lesson on intonation. We have had regular group rehearsals (sopranos, altos etc. separately). We also made a recording of a modern piece so that each singer recorded their part at home and the piece was then put together.
We have also ordered videos of singing and breathing exercises, planned specifically for our choir.
And we had a workshop to plan our long-term future goals as a choir. In addition to the official program, we have had social gatherings in Zoom with no official agenda, as we find it is important to meet friends and keep on communicating as a social group.
