The VOICES Boston youth choir may be performing through Zoom screens these days, but their spirit and song are louder than ever. Since the beginning of shutdowns in Brookline in March, the organization has completely recalibrated to find new, innovative ways to keep students singing and learning during these unusual circumstances.
“We started the year completely remote,” says Daniel Ryan, artistic director at VOICES Boston. “But over the summer, we built a small recording studio in our storage office that is separated and has two separate entrances. So students could, if they felt comfortable and their parents felt comfortable, come into the recording studio.”
VOICES Boston works with children in singing, dance, and drama to build confidence, interpersonal connections, and a love of music. The organization serves more than 130 children per year from various backgrounds in the 5-14 age group.
Right now, the performers are rehearsing for two musicals. The K-3rd grade age group will perform “Goin’ Buggy,” a charming musical about an insect population that marches to Washington to fight for their bug rights. At the end of the performance, the bugs reach the U.S. Capitol and are greeted by congresspeople. VOICES Boston has reached out to some Massachusetts representatives, like Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Marty Walsh, State Sen. Cynthia Creem and others to record those final lines for the performances.
The older students are hard at work on “Raining Cats and Dogs,” a musical about a dog that identifies as a cat and how the other animals handle that choice. “It’s a really neat story about identity and how people see themselves through the lens of theater for youth,” says Ryan.
Some scenes of the musical will be performed live; others will be recorded in advance. Ryan hopes to get students together to record a masked and socially distanced dance number to accompany the piece. Both performances debut on March 20 and 21.
Though it’s been challenging to create a community online, the Zoom platform has provided VOICES Boston with new opportunities. Last fall, VOICES Boston performed as the youth choir in “Alice in the Pandemic,” a world premiere virtual opera by White Snake Opera Projects that garnered coverage in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The opera, and as a result, the student performances, have been archived in the Library of Congress.
Another big part of the VOICES Boston pandemic programming has been “Zoom bopping,” the good-hearted counterpart to hackers’ “Zoom bombing” meetings. It works like this: a member of a meeting contacts VOICES to set up a “Zoom bopping” and provides a performer with the meeting link unbeknownst to the rest of the meeting participants. The performer bops on and sings a 2-3 minute song and then bops out.
Ryan says they’ve had these Zoom bops performed at family gatherings online, corporate meetings, school classrooms, and other settings. The VOICES team even set up a special Zoom bop concert for a student battling cancer who’s completely housebound for safety during this time. “We did a whole concert for this student,” says Ryan. “This would never be something that we could put together or would even be on our radar before COVID.”
Zoom Bops have also prompted donations from some corporations who have participated, and those funds have helped keep tuition assistance available. Though VOICES Boston continues to overflow with joy during this challenging time, financial contributions from the community go a long way in keeping these programs afloat.
“Registration is lower, tuition assistance requests have increased,” says Kate DiMaria, executive director of VOICES Boston. “We are so committed to making sure that any child who wants a music education in Brookline, wants to be able to perform, needs a creative outlet during this time, can do that.”
To keep making these programs possible, donations are much appreciated. These can be made online at the VOICES Boston website. Non-monetary resources can be helpful as well, for example, if a Brookliner knows of a space where students can perform socially distanced dance routines.
Registration for the 2021 year is still open, and students in Brookline are encouraged to sign up for an educational and jubilant exploration into the world of music.
“This is a place where these young people are getting to be themselves and feel accepted by a group of people around them,” says DiMaria. “I think that’s so important during a time when a lot of people are feeling so isolated.”
