The San Francisco Community Music Center (CMC) is the oldest community arts organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their students range in age from a few months to nearly 100 years old, and offer classes in everything from Western classical to Chinese to Latin Music. In 2019, over 3,100 students of all ages studied at CMC and thousands attended CMC performances.
Since March 2020, the CMC has developed several new ways to adapt their Older Adult Choir Program (OACP), which serves nearly 400 older adults in senior centers throughout San Francisco, to a successful online learning platform. To keep their dynamic choir communities connected during COVID-19, the CMC worked with their senior center partners, where brick and mortar choirs take place, to create instructional videos on their YouTube Channel, which led to implementing sessions on Zoom.
Developing Remote Arts Instruction with Senior Center Partners
Choir instructor, Rita Lackey, provided daily vocal exercise videos for members part of Bayview, IT Bookman, and Visitacion Valley Older Adult Choirs on CMC’s YouTube Channel.
Prior to producing instructional videos, the CMC and their senior center partners surveyed choir members to see who had access to the internet and YouTube. The CMC aligned their survey questions with the wellness calls that senior centers were making to members and developed volunteer teams within each center’s choir community to help with accessibility.
“Some centers recognized that the online choir could be a resource for older adults who had not participated previously, but might want to connect in a new way while sheltering in place,” said Sylvia Sherman, Program Director at CMC.
The CMC also provided technical support to choir faculty for recording the videos and uploading them to YouTube. Choir directors shared their videos to members weekly, which were also shared among the different choir teams. These videos served as a learning tool for choir faculty to share repertoire and voice/physical warm ups.
“The videos help a lot. I will practice with them until we are able to meet in class,” said a member from CMC 30th Street Choir. “This is working well for me as I am able to practice more frequently than Mondays. The phone calls and emails are very much appreciated.”
Real-Time Connection Deemed More Beneficial for Members
Coro Solera, directed by CMC faculty members Martha Rodriguez-Salazar and Jennifer Peringer, is one of the 14 choirs in CMC’s Older Adult Choir Program (OACP).
Nearly six weeks after launching the YouTube videos, the CMC decided that real-time connection between members needed to be implemented. CMC staff and choir faculty followed their initial protocol by reaching out to senior center partners and choir members to discuss the plan of moving their lessons to Zoom.
The CMC held one-on-one meetings with choir members to help them learn how to use the platform. Choir faculty even held test sessions where they practiced getting into meetings, muting, using the chat feature, and raising their hands to create a communicative flow. The CMC also extended their school-wide zoom training sessions to older adult choir members, which allowed one choir team to pass on their technical assistance to others as they moved into zoom sessions.
The real-time connection with members each week sparked random acts of kindness. Each session started with a “check-in,” where each participant shared how they were doing. During one of these check-ins for the choir, Cora Solera, a member mentioned they were eating poorly because they could not go out to the store. Another choir member responded by offering to get her groceries.
“This reminded us of the great friendships, solidarity and community that have been forged through our weekly rehearsals,” said Sylvia.
After the initial impact of COVID-19, the Community Tech Network created, “HomeConnect,” a pilot program that provides isolated seniors in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin access to devices, internet and virtual training. This program caught the attention of the CMC, and Maria Cora, their Older Adult Choir Coordinator, surveyed members to find out who needed this assistance. Currently, members are in the process and gaining access to devices and training. “We hope that this program will grow and serve a broader group as surely, we will need to continue distance learning for a while longer,” said Sylvia.
Sylvia’s Advice on Remote Program Implementation:
Bring your instructors and partners into the process. Use this transition to develop leadership and volunteerism in the choir to engage and provide access to as many as possible. Give your choir faculty the resources (zoom account) and training they need to be successful. Their personalities and musicality will come across naturally to keep their creative aging community together, if they have the support they need!
Art Forms
Music (Vocal), Performing Arts