“After so many goodbyes that couldn’t happen between friends and professors, and the chaos of everything, a lot of the music students did the only logical thing in our minds at the moment: We started forming potential ensembles that would work in a COVID-19 world through physical distancing, online formats, and music study groups.”
— Chloé Thiessen, Bachelor of Music student
The resilience and resourcefulness of artists and musicians is often made more apparent in times of challenge. Here at Trinity Western University, students and alumni have been pioneering new creative avenues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chloé Thiessen is a Bachelor of Music student in TWU’s School of the Arts, Media + Culture (SAMC), pursuing a double major in vocal performance and piano, and a skilled tubist. This spring, she had composed a choral piece for the TWU Chamber Singers.
Titled, “In the Beginning,” Thiessen’s composition was to be the opening piece for TWU’s first choir concert of the season. However, TWU musicians were soon met with an unfavourable surprise.
“Unfortunately that concert was cancelled the morning that it was scheduled, and all classes were cancelled that afternoon,” Thiessen recalls. It was March 2020, and TWU had responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with event cancellations to accommodate health and safety precautions. Thiessen’s own senior voice recital, scheduled for a few weeks following, was also postponed until next year.
The changes were quite sudden. “Many of us went from doing a dress rehearsal at noon – while mentally prepping for multiple choir concerts, our own recitals, and other ensemble performances – to everything being shut down in only a few hours,” Thiessen says. “Needless to say, it was not the cheeriest of days for the music department.”
Pioneering new musical paths
When faced with the sudden loss of live performances, several SAMC musicians sought new avenues for their craft.
“After so many goodbyes that couldn’t happen between friends and professors, and the chaos of everything, a lot of the music students did the only logical thing in our minds at the moment: We started forming potential ensembles that would work in a COVID-19 world through physical distancing, online formats, and music study groups.” Thiessen says.
Thiessen was among those who began composing music for online and socially-distanced formats.
“A group of students, myself included, began organizing small numbers of musicians who could rehearse in pairs and trios, while others started forming collaborative duos,” she says.
Naturally inclined towards observing and reflecting the world, TWU artists began to express themselves in new ways.
Thiessen describes the adaptiveness of SAMC students, “Performers and composers began reacting to current events and responding in their own forms of creative output, whether that was composing, curating programs, or delving further into research.”
Thiessen was among those inspired to provide a meaningful response to world events. “I decided that the quiet heartbreak of the choir members needed to be met with something—anything, to keep us singing ‘together’ and staying connected.”
“Hence,” she says, “my virtual choir project was born.”
TWU’s first virtual choirs
Thiessen’s virtual choir project began as a response to the pain and confusion of this past year.
“The turmoil of death, loss, social injustice and division has left so many people broken, hurting and alone, especially in the past several months,” she shares. “I wanted to share a message of hope and solace.”
Fittingly, Thiessen chose the Passion Prayer as the inspiration for her choral project. Sung in Latin, it translates to “Lord Father: Open our hearts so that we may know, by Christ’s death on the cross, that we are made free in your glory.”
Thiessen explains, “Freedom from sin includes the wonderful gift of rejoicing with others by expressing Christ’s unbound, unwavering, unending love to those around us. In times when everyone is scared, concerned, and hurting, it is our duty and pleasure to love and care for each other and the earth.”
“To me, that is what faith is about,” she says.
Thiessen hopes that the text in her composition can be a reminder for people “to evaluate our own thoughts, and then fill our hearts with the same grace and love that Jesus showed us.’
The singers started recording in May from their homes in various locations across North America. Thiessen completed editing the piece in August.
Listen to a TWU virtual choir sing Chloé Thiessen’s composition, Passion Prayer:
Listen to Passion Prayer
Here are the singers involved in the Passion Prayer virtual choir project, and their location at the time of recording in May 2020:
Anna-Marie Ryan (TWU alum) – Agassiz, BC
Meg Tobert (TWU student) – Vancouver, BC
Chloé Thiessen (TWU student) – Calgary, AB
Audrey Loeffler (TWU student) – California, USA
Andrew Whiteside (TWU alum) – Vancouver, BC
Daniel Aguero (TWU alum) – Langley, BC
Colin Jamieson (TWU alum) – Langley, BC
Brad Thompson (TWU student) – Langley, BC
Joel Tranquilla (TWU Director of Choral Activities) – Langley, BC
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to establish meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. It is a fully accredited research institution offering liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has five campuses: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, Ottawa, and Bellingham, WA. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vital faith community committed to forming leaders to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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