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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
                                                                                           7
        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
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