Singing with healthcare and science professionals in 2023.

As many of you know, I studied music before going to medical school. Within music, choral music has always been my focus and greatest joy. So, it’s especially meaningful that I have the opportunity to lead and make wonderful music with The Longwood Chorus, Boston’s 70-voice ensemble of healthcare and science professionals.

And we’ve just received some wonderful press. A special story about the chorus was just published in The Boston Globe and I hope you check it out! Below are some of the great photographs from the article.

An update on how we are singing in the Covid era.

When Covid-19 erupted, our chorus stopped meeting. For a long time. Then, the vaccines came, and we began to gather again. After turning off the music part of my brain for way longer than I had expected, it felt so great to be back.

But we weren’t interested in getting everyone sick. With masking and weekly testing, regimens in place (Fall 2021-Spring 2023), I am proud to say that we never had an outbreak. This Fall, with the official public emergency period having ended (and free tests no longer available), the chorus decided to drop the testing and mask requirements (though a few do wear them, and one-way masking is a pretty safe approach). Now, despite my expertise in these matters, this was not my decision. It was the Board of Directors’ call. That said, I did not protest, as I felt we were never going to get to zero risk; it made reasonable sense to try this now.

I did have one request, though. I asked the chorus to do rapid testing before our final three rehearsals. The first of those was the week after all that Thanksgiving travel. The second and third were this week, (a.k.a. show week). Now, the purpose was not specifically to keep the chorus safe from Covid-19, per se—although, with December rolling around, I did expect cases would be higher now. The reason for the late-season tests was that I didn’t want our rehearsals to become Covid superspreaders that would ruin our season! These singers come to rehearsal every Tuesday night for a couple of hours—and that’s after a long day helping the world in some healthcare or science capacity. The idea of losing an entire section (especially my fantastic tenors) to a Covid-19 outbreak that our own rehearsal caused was enough to make me sick! So, we decided we’d use tests in the final two weeks of our rehearsal process to keep our season from falling apart at the hands of Covid.

It seems to have worked. I can’t cite data, but overall my sense is that people no longer show up to rehearsal if they have a new cold. In the “old times,” some singers might have shown up to sing with a common cold, as long as they weren’t feverish, or trying to hack up a lung. So while I can’t prove it, I think there’s a post-Covid etiquette that basically says “don’t come to rehearsal if you think you might be getting sick.” We also have the advantage of singing in spaces with good ventilation. (I’ve checked the carbon dioxide levels.) As a result of all of that—and I’m sure some luck—tonight, we will have a full chorus of healthy singers, ready to perform their hearts out.

I must say that it has been really nice to see the singers’ faces when I stand in front of them to lead rehearsals. While there is some debate as to whether masks (non-N95 ones, anyway), affect a singer’s sound on an individual level, my subjective experience is that for a 70-person group, taking the masks away has made the group’s overall sound better. For one thing, I can see the shapes of their vowels, which often helps me improve the intonation of the group when something is a little awry. It’s also nice to know that if we need to (based on cases or new outbreaks), we can always go back to masks and tests and still make great music together.

Finally, I’m just excited for this show. It’ll be a wonderful program, with music by Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen, and some living composers like Anna Lapwood, Elaine Hagenberg, and Ola Gjielo.

If you are in the Boston area, please attend our show in person! Here’s how to reserve a ticket.

If you are not in the Boston area, Livestream it from anywhere in the world, at 7:30pm ET, (Saturday evening, east coast time).