From Virtual To Live: Great Rivers Choral Society In Concert

One of the casualties of the pandemic has been live performances. From local churches to Broadway, live music has not been possible—and performers have suffered as well as audiences. “Virtual concerts,” with videos of individual performers edited together to simulate an ensemble performance, have tried to fill the gap – but nothing replaces the spirit and energy of making music together in the same space.

Now, as the world begins to emerge cautiously from isolation, Great Rivers Choral Society is excited to announce a short, three-song concert that will be performed live for a restricted, socially distanced audience; and also recorded on video for those who prefer to stay isolated at this time.

“The theme of this concert is hope for the future,” said GRCS Music Director Raynard Brown. “I wanted to capture the emotion of this moment. It’s like a caterpillar about to emerge into its full beauty. Hopefully the past year has taught us be more aware of beauty, more enthralled with the world around us – and to pour that abundance into the things we love, like music, as they start to open up to us again.”

The concert will consist of three songs that feature togetherness. For example, Barry Manilow’s “One Voice” highlights how combining voices can stand up to fear and darkness. “We’ve all kind of been in our own corner of the world singing our own songs,” Brown explained. “Each voice now comes together with the others.”

Great Rivers Choral Society will perform this hybrid live/virtual concert twice at Greater St. James Missionary Baptist Church, 2016 Belle Street, Alton, on

Tuesday, April 27, 2021 and

Monday, May 4, 2021

Both performances will take place at 7:00 p.m. On April 27, the performance will be recorded and later made available on GRCS’ website and Facebook. The May 4 performance will be livestreamed via Facebook Live.

Seating for the in-person performances will be limited, with all safety protocols including masks, sanitizer and distancing strictly observed.

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