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Rehearsal Break
warmup, small group musicianship vious day’s interview—especially Media and Technology
instruction, and an interview/Q&A any unfamiliar terms, composers, Taylor and Parsons view media/
with a special guest. or pieces of music—and included technology as a tool for enhancing
recommended listening and reading engagement by creating accessibil-
links for further exploration. Many ity to relevant subject matter, cre-
Interaction singers reported that these emails ating opportunity for interaction
Definitions of “interaction” are led them to discover for themselves with experts, and creating deep-
broad, but Claxton noted that stu- compelling composers, performers, er connections and relationships
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dents are more engaged when they and works. One student wrote, “I’ve among learners. One of our sing-
see “teachers modeling learning really liked how weekly emails had ers commented on the importance
as opposed to telling students what links to pieces of music related to of relationships: “The music itself is
the answers, process, or outcome what we talked about with our spe- important, but finding ways to build
3
should be.” Dunleavy and Milton’s cial guests—listening to those has the relationships in the choir is just
research found that students also been a highlight!” as important.”
desire the opportunity to personal- We knew that Zoom would pro-
ly interact with experts in a given vide opportunities for the choir to
4
fi eld. During Zoom interviews and Relevance interact with fellow singers, the ar-
discussions with guests, Youth Cho- “Today’s learners ask that their tistic staff , and our special guests,
rus members gained easy access to learning apply to real-life scenari- but we did not anticipate the sur-
experts in the music field and were os whenever possible as opposed to prising benefi t of randomized vi-
able to witness the ensemble leaders theoretical and text-based.” Often, sual placement. Friesen noted that
6
learning from these experts at the when asked to think of a job or ca- student engagement is strengthened
same time as the students. As one reer in music, youth musicians can when students work alongside their
singer wrote in our feedback form, envision only an on-stage perform- teachers in a horizontal relationship
“I love that we are able to actually er or a school/studio teacher. The rather than a strictly vertical hierar-
communicate with experienced and Youth Chorus makes a particular chical relationship. Fascinatingly,
8
successful people that most people eff ort to expose students to the vast the Zoom platform made this the-
wouldn’t get the opportunity to even infrastructure of the performing arts oretical concept visually concrete
meet.” Special guests included a mu- and the equally vast array of career by situating the teacher/conductor
sic therapist, a professional orches- possibilities that are arts-adjacent. alongside the student/singer in the
tral musician, professional singers, Nearly all of our students were un- Zoom grid. In this case, technology,
voice pathologists, a music theorist, aware of music therapy as a fi eld paired with the shift in instruction
and a prominent composer/conduc- until a music therapist appeared on toward discussion and questions,
tor. our Zoom forum, for example. One helped create a more collaborative
singer wrote, “[The Q&A session] learning environment.
helps me figure out what I want to
Exploration go to college for, or see what my life
In the words of Taylor and Par- could look like 10-20 years from Instruction
sons, “Today’s learners ask for the now.” Critically, these forums have Creating compelling instruction-
opportunity to explore and to fi nd helped students imagine how their al portions of the rehearsal (guided
solutions and answers for them- futures can include avocational mu- vocal warmups and small group
5
selve.” The Youth Chorus staff sent sic making, even if they choose not musicianship lessons) was a chal-
follow-up messages to the singers to study music in college. lenge. Among many negative as-
one day after our Zoom sessions. pects created by the inability to hear
The messages summarized the pre- our singers was the diffi culty to ef-
76 CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9