Women’s club finds Glee amid virtual circumstances

Aubrey Wright
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 01:16:49 +0000
Faces of Ohio State

As the Ohio State Women’s Glee Club gathered for a typical Monday Zoom meeting last semester, director Jordan Saul’s plans for rehearsal collapsed into a series of technological mishaps.

First, the pre-assigned breakout rooms failed to place choir members in the correct groups.

Then she displayed the wrong musical score.

And then the recording skipped.

“There wasn’t one thing that could have gone wrong that didn’t go wrong,” Saul said.

This “comedy of errors” was met with enthusiasm and laughter from the choir, Saul said, but the Women’s Glee Club carried on through one of the “bad” days.

By considering the need for flexibility amid the pandemic, Saul said she crafted a virtual curriculum for the Women’s Glee Club that provides opportunities for her students to create music, maintain friendships and protect their mental health.

Although Saul said she was “devastated” with not being able to gather outside of a virtual space, she has some positive feelings about the changes COVID-19 may bring to the field of education.

“As an educator, I’m excited for this opportunity for a giant reset, so that we can examine these ways of instructing and learning that may have not been in the best interest of students,” Saul said.

Women’s Glee Club President Maggie Hunter, a fourth-year in nursing, said strong friendships and sisterhood are key components of the choir’s appeal, so staying connected was a goal for the fall semester.

To accomplish this, Saul said she designated time in Zoom meetings for the women to relax and connect in breakout rooms, ensuring moments for socializing with new and old members.

For the spring semester, Saul said she and the student leaders within the choir decided to dedicate one rehearsal per week completely to social activities, such as putting on face masks and nail polish for a self-care night.?

Saul said it was important to include social time within scheduled rehearsal time so members would not have to carve out more time of their week for the choir.?

“We’ve really doubled down on the community aspect these days when we can’t physically meet to sing together,” Saul said. “And it’s been really delightful. It’s been nice to see people have some time to relax.”

Saul said one of the new projects she implemented was a “wellness module,” assignments that aim to increase the overall health of the choir by discussing various topics such as digital, mental and financial health.

Saul said she created the first module on Carmen and then gave the template to her students, so they designed the content themselves.

Hunter said Saul’s aim was to capitalize on the diverse educational backgrounds of the women within the choir and encourage “holistic wellness” for the members.

“She’s not only leading her own group of people, but she’s helping other people to lead,” Hunter said.

Saul said one of the most “heartbreaking” aspects of the semester was the choir’s inability to sing together, stemming from technological issues such as poor internet connections and audio issues.

As a substitute for live performances, the choir recorded multiple songs, ranging from “Carmen Ohio” to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” to a Buddhist mantra, “Chant for Great Compassion.”

Saul said the choir members were asked to record themselves three times singing alone to a piece of their choice while following along to a video that combined the score and footage of the conductor. The students received feedback after each recording, and the third recording would be used in the final video.

However, many of the members struggled with singing either due to poor acoustics or anxiety, Saul said. She did not want to single out vulnerable singers and decrease their confidence, so she made self-recording voluntary for the spring semester.?

“That’s one of the great appeals to ensemble singing, to have all of the joy of singing without any of the uncomfortable spotlight,” Saul said. “These recording projects really shifted that for a lot of people. It brought out the part of singing that they really didn’t like.”

Saul said she acknowledges the merit of having a product of the choir’s work, but recordings cannot compare to the magic of the choir performing together and sharing music with the audience.

“While we still can make some music at a distance, it’s not an analogue for the experience that we have when we’re all together,” Saul said.