World Premiere performance of the Corona Chorus on Quadra Island

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Quadra Singers released a video of the world premiere performance of Dr. John Hooper’s composition Corona Chorus, which they sang at the Quadra Community Centre on December 10th and 11th, 2021.

Hooper is a former Professor and Director of the School of Music at Concordia University of Edmonton, an examiner for the London School of Music and the Music Director of Island Voices. At the time of the Quadra performance, he was also the interim conductor for the Quadra Singers.

In the press release accompanying the audio that follows, choir president Joan Varley, said,“Singing together is a decades-long tradition in our small island community, and it was very hard to let that go in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic. After two sessions online, we worked hard, following provincial guidance, to provide a safe environment to sing together again. Under Dr. Hooper’s leadership, this piece, it’s musical style and lyrics, really captures the mix of feelings and challenges that we’re facing during the pandemic. And the bonus was that he turned a really tough subject into something that shares the important public health message in a new way.”

This was the Quadra Singers 2021 Christmas concert and they followed strict safety protocols. The participants were fully vaccinated, kept two metres apart and washed their hands when entering the performance area.

Prior to the pandemic, there would have been 140 to 150 people in the audience. Due to COVID restrictions, the performance had to be scheduled over two nights to meet this capacity.

Dr Hooper introduced his composition by saying, “ I've written a piece attempting to communicate some aspects of our lived experience for music to communicate our reactions, our rules, our new realities, our frustrations, our life changes. And even some of our sadness over sickness and death. You'll hear many words that have become all too familiar to you. Yeah, I hope you'll also hear some optimism as we come out of this together, as well as some friendly finger-wagging and reminders along the way. I hope Corona chorus will make Dr. Henry proud.”