Online choir sings to community’s soul

SET up as a way to continue singing as a group during COVID lockdown, the second Virtual Soul Choir performance, commissioned by the Baha’i community, has been success.

After launching the Song of Celebration’s video to social media, the performance clocked over 15,000 views and 150 shares, which choir leaders George and Geoffrey Williams said was a fantastic surprise.

“We had 80 voices, from a baby to people in their eighties from all over the world, India, Canada, Germany and Scotland,” Mr Williams said.

“The recording is a culmination of everyone’s different space, more than just their voices… it’s as close to live performance as we can get.

“When you hear everybody’s individual voices, you have no idea how they’re going to sound and then as we start to put it together it starts sounding so rich and soulful.”

Mr and Ms Geoffrey said the second instalment from the virtual choir group was structured in a slightly different way.

“The piece also has some improvised piano which George played beautifully on it, which gave it a different vibe,” Mr Williams said.

“You don’t usually have piano improvisation with a choir piece and that’s what we did in the live performance and it was really joyful and uplifting.”

In addition to the extra musical element, the performance video also features a visual component created by artist Paige Duggan.

Ms Williams said the animation created by Ms Duggan for the performance was a special surprise for the entire choir to enjoy.

“When we knew we were doing this song for the second virtual soul choir iteration, we knew that there were the improvised parts to the song and we thought there couldn’t be anything better than something from Paige there,” she said.

“She had made her own animation videos and we were just blown away by them we thought if we could make that a part of it that would be the icing.

“It’s something special for the people who took the time to be a part of it and give them something they weren’t expecting so they could be excited for something too.”

In the wake of the second performance’s success, Mr and Ms Williams are already preparing for their next Virtual Soul Choir performance for later this year.

“The next one is going to come out in November, so we’re really excited for that one,” Ms Williams said.

“We don’t know what that one will look like yet, it’s a surprise.

“But we do know, it will be virtual still and the same as these ones because we still wouldn’t feel comfortable to go back to singing in groups until there’s a vaccine.”

For more information or to register for the next performance at virtualsoulchoir.com.