User:PamD/choir

A virtual choir or online choir is a choir whose members do not meet physically but who work together online from separate places. Some choirs just sing for the joy of the shared experience, while others record their parts alone and send their digital recordings, sometimes including video, to be collated into a choral performance. There may be a series of rehearsals which singers can watch online, and their performance recordings may be made while watching a video of the conductor and in some cases listening to a backing track, to ensure unanimity of timing. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has seen a large growth in the number of virtual choirs, although the idea was not new in 2020.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre has led six iterations of his Virtual Choir, starting in 2009. He was inspired by a young singer Britlin Losee who contacted him after posting a YouTube recording of herself singing the soprano part of his work 'Sleep. In his first version, 185 singers from 12 countries sang his Lux Aurumque, watching a video of him conducting. By 2020, over 20,000 singers from 124 countries had participated in the choir, and Whitacre launched his Virtual Choir 6 to sing a new work "Sing Gently". 17,572 people in 129 countries had contributed their recordings by the closing date in May 2020.

Virtual choirs during COVID-19 "lockdown"
Many virtual choirs were set up during the "lockdown" caused by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when people could not meet to sing together.

In the UK, Gareth Malone launched The Great British Home Chorus on Monday 23 March 2020 and conducted 50 half-hour rehearsals (Monday-Friday with a "half term" break) up to Friday 12 June, moving thereafter to weekly rehearsals. He worked from his garden studio, with technical assistance from Decca Record. The choir produced a CD including the voices of 11,000 singers, featuring the songs "You Are My Sunshine", "Ordinary Day", Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" and Elton John's "I'm Still Standing", accompanied by members of the London Symphony Orchestra.

The Self-Isolation Choir was launched by Mark Strachan with conductor Ben England and initially worked towards a performance of Handel's Messiah. The final production included 3,600 voices, four soloists, and a nine-member baroque orchestra, all recorded in isolation, and was broadcast on Sunday 31 May 2020. The Stay at Home Choir recorded several pieces along with professional musicians including The Swingle Singers.

In Australia the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's virtual choir recorded "Waltzing Matilda" for the annual ANZAC Day commemoration at which the MSO Chorus would normally have performed.