Texts and intonation were learned, rehearsed in voice groups, and coordinated in the entire choir. In six intense rehearsals, the nuances were fine-tuned and coordinated with the pianist – not in person as is usual for a choir, but online using the ultra-low latency software Soundjack. This innovative approach was the central task of our laboratory choir within the framework of the cooperative Erasmus project Choir@Home, implemented in collaboration with the Mozarteum Salzburg in Innsbruck, and the University of Liechtenstein and the University of Applied Sciences Anhalt.
Live for the first time
As part of the Vocal Pedagogy Symposium in Munich „In (Kon-)Takt – Generationen durch Musik verbinden“ on March 22 – 23, the choir was able to perform live for the first time and play in front of an audience. This performance marked the first major premiere of our project.
The project team is proud to have successfully mastered the experiment and extends heartfelt thanks and congratulations to our choir! They embraced the challenge of live performance and excelled at it. While the pianist was present in Munich, the sound of her e-piano was synchronized online with the channels of the individual singers and output as a unified sound. This meant a particular technical challenge for the pianist Alexandra Milborn, who had to stay a step ahead of the singing, but also for the choir director Markus Rohregger. For him, it meant leaning back during the performance and enjoying the results of the intense preparations, as direct choreographic input was at this stage no longer possible.
Live collaboration
But that was not all – the second premiere was also impressive. The Ohm Choir of the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm was present live and sang together with the digital laboratory choir. To top it all off, the audience also participated in this unique experiment. At the technical end of things everything ran smoothly, with Professor Alexander Carôt in charge of the technical adjustments and balancing the voices equally with those of the live choir. The project team is delighted with the outcome of this very special challenge in such a short amount of time. The entire experiment confirmed that innovative technologies and dedicated collaboration across borders can create surprising and impressive musical experiences. As project team, we look forward to the next steps in our project and are excited to share similarly thrilling premieres with you in the future.
