Article for the Castlegar News. September 9, 2020, by Connor Trembley.
Members participated in several rehearsals through Zoom to prepare for music video.
The COVID-19 crisis isn’t stopping the Twin River Community Choir members from singing together. The singers spent hours this summer producing an online music video of “For the Longest Time” by Billy Joel. “Choir members were so disappointed that we had to suspend all of our in-person practices in March,” said choir director Christina Nolan.
“As a result, we decided to produce this online video because it felt like we hadn’t been together for the longest time. It really resonated with all of us.” Choir members started practising for the video in early July by doing five rehearsals together on Zoom. Over the next three weeks, members perfected their own parts before sending their individual recordings of the song to Nolan. “As members recorded themselves singing, I prepared a musical track for them to listen to on their headphones so it didn’t pick up on the audio track,” said Nolan. “Members either sent me a video recording of themselves singing or an audio track by using a voice recorder on their phone.” Nolan then worked with Arts Laureate, a U.S.-based company, to help edit and sync all of the audio tracks for the video. The production of the video took about seven weeks before it was finally released to the public on Youtube.
Choir members plan to produce at least three more online music videos over the next three months and they’ll be discussing what songs they want to sing at their annual general meeting on Thursday.
RDCK Area I and J helped to provide funds to make the online videos a reality and Destination Castlegar staff also helped to provide material for the video.