For many students on William Jewell College’s campus, activities outside of their academic studies are a time to decompress and share an experience with friends. These activities range from theatre to intramurals and football to choir. All of these activities have been affected and changed by the rise of COVID-19 in the United States since late January. For 48 students on the Hill, the chance to sing with their friends and de-stress at the end of the day has been flipped on its head.

The William Jewell choir program, typically consisting of Choral Ensemble, Concert Choir and Choral Scholars, has been rearranged to mitigate the spread of the virus on campus. The 48 members of Jewell’s choir program have been separated into six small ensembles – with two ensembles meeting with Dr. Maglione in the afternoon outside, weather-permitting, near the concession stand in Greene Stadium. 

Each singer is assigned to a spot, marked with a white X, that is distanced from the singers around them. The students have all been given a special singer’s mask. The mask, while still protecting the wearer and those around them, sticks out farther from the face of the wearer, allowing for better sound and air circulation. 

The soprano-alto choir was separated into two groups with one singing “The March of the Women” by Ethel Smyth and the other group singing “Ave Maria” by B.E. Boykin. The tenor-bass choir will be singing “Requiescat” by Andrea Ramsey. 

During the rehearsal process, each of the three groups will be split into the aforementioned six small ensembles and will use the Acapella app to showcase the progress that they have made on the pieces. Dr. Maglione hopes to use a new app, with a scheduled release date in October, for the final performance as it should allow for up to 50 participants in collaboration with a similar end product to the Acapella app. The creation of this new app would allow the choir to have performances with the entirety of the choir. Performing with the whole of the choir restores some semblance of normalcy, but the choir experience that these singers have come to know and love will not be what it was until the threat of COVID-19 is gone. 

Georgia Hatfield, first-year music education major, spoke about her experiences in the choir program so far. 

“I assumed that I would be in one huge choir … and every single day we would work on learning the music together,” Hatfield said. 

Instead of the large choir that she had been expecting, Hatfield has been placed into one of the small ensembles as well as the Choral Scholars ensemble. However, these changes to the typical structure of the choir have not gotten her down.

“I knew that a smaller school and a smaller music program would mean more attention to detail, but this makes me feel like they really care about us and are trying their best to think things through for the safety of not only the professors but the students [as well],” said Hatfield.

In regards to the precautions taken by the music department, Hatfield said she never feels unsafe. Overall, her time in the choir so far has been positive, with some expected setbacks.

“It is much harder to make connections and get to know the other singers in the group,” said Hatfield.

Social distancing and the masks make it difficult for those new on campus, not just those in the choir program, to create the deep connections that are so widely touted by students of Jewell, but that does not mean we must disregard either of those things. We must temporarily forego these “normal” connections on campus to fight and stop the pandemic in this country. Once we have done that we will be able to finally remove our masks, hug our friends and forge those deep connections that we all heard about on our tours of the college.

Anwar Robinson, American singer, songwriter and musician, served as a guest conductor at Jewell last year while associate professor of music and director of choral studies Dr. Anthony Maglione was on sabbatical. Robinson introduced the choir to the central piece on the album, a three movement cantata by African American composer Adolphus Hailstork.

“I think we all sort of fell in love with it,” said Maglione.

Maglione began researching the piece and found that no recording of the piece in its entirety has been produced. The choir gathered money through donations and grants and began to put the album together.

Current Jewell choir members, Jewell choir alumni and faculty took part in the making of this album. David Sanchez, Class of ‘14, is the tenor soloist for the Hailstork piece. Two newer works are done by Dr. Ian Coleman, professor of music and department chair, and Stewart Duncan, Class of ‘15.

Luce-Virlynn Apollon, senior nursing and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry (Act-In) major described the process of making an album.

“Not many people are aware of how much work and attention to detail go into making an album. Yeah, we sing the same portion of the song over and over again—with so many voices a slight difference in each take makes a huge difference. There would be times where we sang a passage perfectly but an 18 wheeler drove by and ruined it,” said Apollon.

Senior music major Jackson Ritchie further described the detail that goes in to the process.

“[It] begins with working through and getting to know each piece of music musically, theoretically and poetically, so we can perform each piece exactly how the composer intended it to be performed. Then after a year of practicing the music, we spend around two days on a weekend at a church, since they have really good acoustics, and we’ll record each piece. Dr. Maglione will take us section by section of each piece and makes sure that every note is perfect and that we are truly singing as an ensemble instead of just singing the notes on the page,” said Ritchie.

The choir traveled to a church in Belton, Mo. to produce the album.

“The space was really warm and resonant so it helped create the sound we were looking for…Overall, I loved the experience. We did some of our best singing in that room,” said Apollon.

A hard copy of the album can be pre-ordered on Amazon. Within the first week after its release, it will be available to stream on Amazon, iTunes, Naxos and through the recording company itself. About ten days later it will be available to stream on Spotify.

“I am incredibly excited for people to hear all of the work we’ve done. Dr. Maglione always does an incredible job of choosing literature for our choir that is both challenging musically and spectacular for those listening to it. I know all of the work we put into the album and I know that people will be impressed that this came from a small liberal arts college in Liberty, Mo,” said Apollon.

After the release of their CD, the Concert Choir leave May 14 for a two-week tour of England and Scotland. The choir will fly into London and stay at Harlaxton Manor. The first part of the tour will have performances at Ely Cathedral and a church in Nottingham as well as visits to York and Cambridge. Then they will travel to Edinburgh to perform at St. Giles on the six concert series. They will return to London and perform in Oxford.

All of these events are open to the public and advertised by the venues. The venues will have free-will offerings to recover the costs of hosting.

The Concert Choir has been touring England since 1985. Then chair of the music department, Don Brown, originally designed the tour. Even though Brown retired in 2004, he still plans the tours. Brown and his wife, Helen, both former faculty at Jewell, will travel with the choir.

“I’m excited for [the choir] to make music in these ancient spaces, these 13th and 14th century cathedrals. I think it’s going to be remarkable,” said Maglione.

For the choir members, the trip is something to look forward to.

“I was a first-year last year and the seniors that are this year, I was friends with all of them and they’ve all just totally hyped it up and told me like what the entire experience is like so getting to kinda go over there and like fulfill that and like do some of the things that they got to do when they were first-years is going to be super cool,” said sophomore music performance, nonprofit leadership and Act-In major, Spencer Ruwe.

Ritchie was one of the seniors who went on this tour his first year.

“The trip to Europe my first-year was one of my greatest experiences and created so many lifelong memories with my friends. We visited many great places that were unknown, non-tourist spots, that were hidden gems for me and made my experience unforgettable,” said Ritchie.

He is excited to experience this again because of the music they are performing.

“Another experience I can’t wait to have again is performing music written for the specific cathedrals we’re performing in so we can see how the original composers heard the music and how they experienced the music they wrote,” said Ritchie.

Maglione incorporated both traditional English and American compositions.

“The English folks really like hearing us sing folk hymns and spirituals and American compositions. They really think that’s authentic I guess which it is kinda cool cause you grew up hearing these sounds so you know when you hear an ensemble come from another country and another culture and they bring their own, a little bit of their homeland, it’s really exciting,” said Maglione.

The variety of pieces excites Blair Walker, junior music education and education major.

“I like singing their music to them and showing how well we can do it but then also singing our music in terms of like we’re singing a bunch of songs that were composed in American literature and then a bunch of English compositions. And I like showing that we appreciate their culture but then to also show them ours,” said Walker.

Feature photo courtesy of William Jewell Photo. 

The William Jewell Concert Choir performed at the annual Missouri Educator’s Association (MMEA) conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, MO Jan. 28-31.

The Concert Choir was asked to perform at the event for the first time in over ten years. Several choirs in the state competed for this honor over the course of a year. Last year, the choir submitted an audition tape to the MMEA board, and of all of the collegiate choirs who auditioned, three were chosen. Jewell was the smallest school selected to perform. On the final day of the conference, the choir performed in front of 750 music educators from all over the state.

At the conference, music students and educators of all levels from across Missouri met and attended workshops, performances and events throughout the four days. Many music education majors from Jewell attended all four days of the conference, where they participated in workshops on various topics, such as changing music education standards and solving problems common for first year teachers.

Additionally, eight Jewell students sang in the all-collegiate choir at the conference. They rehearsed extensively, about six hours per day, to prepare for the performance. Stewart Duncan, a senior Concert Choir performer, was among one of the students who participated.

“It was nice to work in an ensemble that size, but the highlight of the weekend was performing with Jewell. It was sort of a culmination of a lot of hard work we had done back in August and September, and we really performed to the best of our ability,” Duncan said.

Dr. Maglione, Concert Choir director and music professor, remarked on how this performance will affect the music program.

“I received a lot of positive feedback on the performance. The concert choir is getting outside validation for what we already suspected-that we have a really fine program that stands out in our area,” Maglione said. “Also, I think students will gain confidence knowing what they’re bringing to the table is relevant and significant.”

Duncan also shared this sentiment and noted other ways the performance was beneficial.

“Performing at the conference is an indication that we’re a good choir. Also, a lot of high school students go to this, and they get to see us perform. If high schools are thinking about where to push their best students, we want Jewell on that list,” said Duncan.

Performing at such events on a state level could really impact the reputation and direction of the choir in the future. Dr. Maglione said that the next objective of the program is to draw national attention to the choir.

“We’re trying to be one of the best choirs in the country and this is a step in that direction. There’s nothing about us being a small school that means we can’t be there. Size doesn’t necessarily mean anything about quality when it comes to a choir,” Duncan said.

Due to copyright restrictions, a recording of the choir’s performance is currently unavailable. However, the choir will be releasing a recording entitled “The Trumpet Sounds” in the near future.