Successful completion of the ERASMUS+ research project ‘Online Choirs’
Singing brings people together – even online. In the ERASMUS+ research project ‘Choir@Home’, the Mozarteum University Salzburg (Prof. Dr. Heike Henning), in collaboration with the University of Liechtenstein (Dr. Janine Hacker) and Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (Prof. Dr. Alexander Carôt), investigated how singing together can take place in virtual spaces and be reimagined.
How to carry out virtual choir rehearsals with the help of digital tools
Direction:
Heike Henning
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important digital alternatives are, even in the cultural sector. While some choirs successfully made the leap to digital, others failed due to technical hurdles or a lack of social interaction. This is exactly where the Choir@Home project came in: the aim was to enable choirs to rehearse digitally and to create new educational concepts and social conditions for effective collaboration in virtual space. An international online laboratory choir tested the developed concepts in over 30 online choir rehearsals and performed five virtual concerts. Direct feedback from participants helped to continuously improve the concepts. At the same time, the results were made available to a wide audience via social media, press articles, information events and scientific publications. In addition, teaching materials were developed for the implementation of individual online choir projects.
The project achieved all of its goals – and even exceeded many of them. It created a comprehensive knowledge base on suitable digital tools, developed practical guidelines for choir directors and choirs, and proved through online rehearsals that singing together can also be lively and socially connecting in a digital setting.
The Choir@Home project shows how digital choir singing can be successful – not as a substitute for singing in person, but as a complement to it. It opens up new opportunities for musical participation and digital inclusion and provides choirs, educators and cultural institutions with valuable materials and solutions for the future.
The results of the project are available on the project website: https://choirathome.com/index.php/results/
The video of the online lab choir singing the Christmas carol ‘Bell Carol’ can be viewed on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zOAHHX6A8p0?si=B7tVT7Zi8gwNi8Hx
The research project ‘Online Choirs: How to carry out virtual choir rehearsals with the help of digital tools’ was funded under Key Action 2 (Cooperation Partnerships) of the European Union's ERASMUS+ programme (project no.: LI01-KA220-HED-000086928).