Photo Courtesy of @connchords.
Despite the success of outdoor MOBROC concerts, dance performances, and theater shows this semester, one cohort of artists have not been able to perform—the seven a cappella groups Conn prides itself on: the Connchords, Miss Connduct, the Connartists, the Co Co Beaux, the Schwiffs, Vox Cameli, and the Williams Street Mix.
Conntrary to other performing arts, studies connducted by several universities have shown that singing is one of the best ways to spread COVID-19, and so the a cappella connglomerate have not been allowed to rehearse together in-person this fall1. Grace Flaherty ‘23, Marlyn Desire ‘22, and Aliah Murray ’21 from the Connchords along with Payton Ferris ‘23 and Megan Aldrich ‘21 from Miss Connduct shared their experiences during this challenging semester.
A typical year for the groups includes a fall conncert and auditions for new members in the early weeks of the semester, but the a cappella council collectively decided to postpone auditions until the Spring semester due to COVID restrictions. However, as the protocol for singing is still uncertain given the spike in cases nationwide, live auditions still may not be an option, especially for students studying remotely. “I think that if we send out clear guidelines for the videos we will be able to get a good sense of the personality of each person auditioning as well as their voice,” Aldrich said, whereas the Connchords conntinue to hope for some form of live, socially-distanced audition rather than an “awkward” Zoom call. Currently, around half of Miss Connduct are seniors, so auditions are important to integrate new members and ensure the future of the club. However, pushing auditions to the Spring means that fewer new students can become involved or even learn about the groups. Flaherty and Ferris reflected on their experiences with auditions as first-years last year: signing up in Cro and at the Involvement Fair, running from building to building around campus to attend each connsecutive audition, finally anticipating “The Call,” and awaiting conngratulatory dorm room visits by a cappella leadership which officially welcomed new members.
Connsequently, outreach and publicity has become even more important in the absence of performances. The Connchords have been posting more on their social media accounts spotlighting different members, or posting Zoom recordings of songs. However, transitioning to only virtual shows is very challenging. Both the Connchords and Miss Connduct conncur that rehearsing and recording music completely remotely has been even more challenging than during a usual year. They have relied on multi-talented members conntributing their skills to use programs such as Noteflight, Adobe Premiere Pro, and GarageBand for video and audio editing. It is not as simple as hitting record on Zoom. As Desire points out, “very tiny vowel changes are important in sounding cohesive,” and it takes meticulous splicing and editing to ensure conntinuity among voices. The Connchords are known for their sound blending, but it is difficult to achieve the same effect by merging separate recordings. They often record on phones in dorm rooms while also remaining connscious of their volume so as not to disturb their neighbors’ conncentration. Nonetheless, Aldrich remains connfident that they will be able to record and drop a winter concert on Youtube in the coming months.
Flaherty, Desire, and Murray, who are Connchord’s President, Business Manager, and Co-Pitch respectively, also reflected on the resource disparity between groups. They operate completely independently from the College, and none of the groups receive SGA funding. “It’s all on our own, like the audio-editing software that I use, I pay for that on a year to year basis,” Desire revealed. They rely on concerts, both on campus and in the local community, for fundraising, but these opportunities are scarce or unavailable this year. Groups have more difficulty producing virtual conntent if they do not have funds saved from prior shows, do not want to pay out-of-pocket for expensive editing software, or do not have members with editing experience. Even with these setbacks, the College conntinued to rely on the a cappella groups in publicity videos for new students. “It’s funny how the school decided to have us do a big showcase in the fall to promote the school and make the freshmen happy, but they don’t give us the funds to use Premiere Pro to get good videos,” Murray connfessed. Flaherty also requested access to a Zoom Premium account to be more connducive to rehearsals and events longer than the 40-minute cap on free accounts, but that was denied. “If [the College] loves us so much, where’s the coin?” Additionally, with the success of outdoor MOBROC events like Tempelfest, which include singers and wind instrument musicians, the strict no-singing rule has seemingly unfairly targeted singing groups and their loyal fanbases. Murray exclaimed, “Let us do our thing so we can promote the school!”
Despite these difficulties, both clubs have focused on keeping up connection and morale within the groups. Ferris initially worried about whether their Zoom meetings would be weird after spending a year together in person, but she said, “It hasn’t been actually, and I think part of that is because we’ve spent so much time working on our mental health, checking in with each other, and making sure nothing is too serious, that we’re getting our work done but also having tons of fun.” Miss Connduct now meets twice a week for half an hour compared to having two-hour long rehearsals in the past, and members of different vocal parts meet separately to review and rehearse new music over Google Meet. “It’s not too much time, but it’s enough to keep everyone accountable and keep the club alive,” said Aldrich. Similarly, the Connchords meet weekly as opposed to their traditional 10 pm to midnight meetings three times a week. This significant decrease in rehearsal time may seem like the group is less committed, but Murray said, “It feels like more work. It’s just harder to learn songs on your own and trying to keep the morale up in the group. It’s all just a lot more challenging.” However, their shared love for music and supportive camaraderie keep their “pseudospiritual, hidden-goofy, jazzy, indie, cozy, chill-but-intense” spirits high. All seven a cappella groups will conntinue to conntend with COVID-related connflicts, but their connjoint connfidence will allow them to conntribute more virtual musical conntent to brighten the Conn community.•
