A baritone finds a safe way choirs can sing together again: over car radios Richard Read
Baritone-for-hire David Newman was looking forward to a year of singing gigs.
Then, in March, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, two members of a choir in Washington state died, and dozens more fell ill after their two-hour practice became a super-spreader event.
Concerts were quickly wiped from calendars around the world. The piercing irony of having to cancel is that the joy this music brings is what we now as a culture need more than ever, said an email Newman received from Wisconsin s Madison Bach Musicians.
Baritone-for-hire David Newman was looking forward to a year of singing gigs.
Then, in March, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, two members of a choir in Washington state died, and dozens more fell ill after their two-hour practice became a super-spreader event.
Concerts were quickly wiped from calendars around the world.
“The piercing irony of having to cancel is that the joy this music brings is what we now as a culture need more than ever,” said an email Newman received from Wisconsin’s Madison Bach Musicians.
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Singing had been the centerpiece of his life. It got him through high school and into Westminster Choir College, a music school in New Jersey, where he majored in vocal performance.
rspitza@miningjournal.net
MARQUETTE A local barbershop chorus has caught the attention of a newspaper on the other side of the country.
This is because the Da Upper Yoopers’ Barbershop+ Chorus has been putting on Christmas “CARoling” events, where members of the group commence in a parking lot and sing together from their vehicles.
Led by musical director Pete Stephens-Brown, the socially distanced rehearsals are held via an FM radio broadcast system. Each participant is issued a microphone used to sing from their cars, and can tune to 107.1 FM to listen in on the broadcast and hear everyone in the parking lot singing together.