Choir despite Corona: A seminar goes virtual

Many areas of the university are currently experimenting with new digital formats in preparation for the upcoming summer semester. The Institute of Music is one of them - Andreas Cessak was faced with the challenge of offering a choral conducting seminar without a real choir. We talked to him about how he overcame this problem.

Mr. Cessak, what is special about your choral conducting seminar this semester?

The seminar was designed from the outset as a compact seminar that runs over five days and has room for 15 to 18 participants. Normally I work together with all the students during this time, and in the course of the seminar a very special dynamic then develops within this choir.
But of course that's not possible in the current situation - so I had to come up with something else.

The virtual choir director seminar?

Exactly. Instead of working together with all the participants, there were individual telephone and video appointments during the first few days. There, the students were then supposed to learn primarily how to make music with themselves and demonstrate this in the online sessions.

What does that mean in concrete terms?

All participants sing all the voices of a piece they have chosen themselves and thereby work out the central musical aspects, such as volume, tempo, tempo variations, articulation, emotion. Next comes learning in two voices, one voice is sung and a second is played along with it on the piano. Here the aim is to learn where polyphony leads to unexpected difficulties and how to solve a problem for oneself concretely in the situation. The methodical possibilities are tested and reflected upon. In the end, the students work out an individual solution for each problem, which can then be applied in the rehearsal situation.

That sounds complicated

It is definitely challenging for the students. But at the same time, it gives them the opportunity to really experience in a sensory way what kind of problems can arise in actual choir rehearsals, even though there is no actual choir present.

Is there also an exam?

Yes, at the end of the seminar the participants will enter their chosen piece into a music program. The piece will then be played at the desired tempo and conducted to. The conducting can then be seen and corrected by me via video conference without delay. At the very end, it will be seen and heard as a VirtalChoir of all participants.

How has the feedback been?

I really received very positive feedback from all participants - due to the 1:1 supervision, I was able to work very intensively with everyone and address individual questions.

Were there also problems?

Unfortunately, the technology presented us with problems from time to time - the video conferencing software was overloaded at times, so I had to reschedule a trial session for late in the evening. But fortunately all the students were very flexible, so we got all the problems solved.

So will the course only be virtual from now on?

(laughs) No, even though it's great fun, a seminar with all the participants on site is still something else. But it is a very valuable experience for both me and the students. However, if the Corona measures are extended even further, we actually still have a few ideas about how we could even hold the follow-up seminar, i.e. Choir Conducting 3, virtually.

Interview: Markus Zens