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Finding harmony together, miles apart

Cancellations of school events this spring have spurred creative expressions online. Here's how one high school chamber group in California responded.

Many of the millions of people who are suddenly working from home are struggling with a new frontier: the 24/7 company of children and angsty teens they can usually pack off to school. While some families are alternately pulling out their hair or finding gallows humor in stressful situations as boredom settles in, there have also been bursts of creativity. In Chino Valley, California, a group of high schoolers has given its community hope that they can find harmony together – even if they are miles apart.

When the Chino Valley Unified School District canceled an annual choral festival scheduled for Wednesday, March 18, the high school chamber singers didn’t sink into despair. Instead, they borrowed a page from Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, who debuted this idea about a decade ago. Using conferencing technology to record their individual parts the teens appeared “together as a family again” to perform a version of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s “Over the Rainbow” a cappella from their separate homes, and posted it on YouTube.

They are certainly giving those of us stuck at home all the good feels with this one – and who isn’t yearning for a return to that land we once dreamed of in a lullaby? We need more of these rainbows of promise to balance the troubling news of this time. What have you seen online that inspires you?

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Mark Sappenfield
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