Choir impacted by pandemic; changes made

Brianna Carmack, Print Editor-In-Chief

Choir is one of the many classes that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many changes have been made this year in order for choir to still function.

Social distancing precaution ultimately moved choir in the Manhattan High auditorium, Rezac.

“So this year instead of being in the choir room, we actually sing in Rezac, which… so that we can sing far apart,” senior Emily Ward said. “It kind of makes it hard when you’re singing together. You can’t really hear people as well, but it’s… luckily we can sing just as much as normally because we’re far apart, but that’s been the biggest change I think for the most part the most of us probably tried really really hard to make it as normal as possible.”

Although the impact of the pandemic has made it difficult for the choir students to have the same experience in previous year, everyone for the most part still has the same amount of passion for choir and wants to try their best to make it a good experience.

“I think that people are still really eager to be together and sing so I think that the love for choir is still there and that just the passion for singing together is still there,” Ward said. “It’s certainly…  like there’s literally physical barriers that we have to stand far apart and we can’t really be as close and have that kind of connection like in a normal year, but I think people still have enough passion for it and that there’s still momentum keeping us going throughout the rest of the year.”

Chad Pape, the choir director, has tried his best on making choir a good experience for everyone involved.

“He’s picked really good music this year and we actually sound really really great,” Ward said. “We’ve made a lot of recordings so that we can listen to them and like show our parents.”

A final performance will be held at Bishop Stadium on May 6. Students are excited to be able to sing together in a concert and end the year off on a high note.

“We are going to have a final concert at Bishop Stadium on May 6, so we have an end goal and something to look forward to for the rest of the year,” Ward said.

Music during the pandemic