A virtual choir is one way for singers to join each other in a digitally created performance by recording their individual parts separately, then having those parts edited together later. Composer Eric Whitacre popularized the idea of the virtual choir with his own pieces starting with Lux Aurumque in 2010. Virtual choirs understandably took off during the pandemic, offering a way for housebound and isolated singers to sing “together” when in-person rehearsals were not possible.
The COVID-19 shutdown struck as the university chorale at the College of Saint Rose was preparing repertoire for our end-of-semester concert. We had a tradition of closing every concert with the late Stephen Paulus’s “The Road Home,” which became our first virtual choir (which we then chose to open to submissions from anyone who wanted to submit a recording of their part. The following semester, we recorded Michael McGlynn’s arrangement of “Siúil a Rúin.”
Organizing vocal parts in the mix became an exercise in building the order of resonance I would have made had I been working with the singers in person. In this instance, I panned darker/deeper voices toward the center and lighter/brighter voices to the sides.
Articles like this one helped me think about panning and placement to create width and depth—in this case, to simulate the spaciousness of a stage in a typical concert hall.
I was thrilled when the Sirens of Gotham asked me to arrange “I Want Everything” by Neyla Pekarek’(of The Lumineers fame), a stirring anthem sung by the protagonist of her musical, Rattlesnake Kate.
You can read the Sirens’ full press release about the video here.