
Zach Finkelstein
At BYU, 320 Students in Six Choirs Kept Singing Through the Pandemic. How Did They Do It?
Updated: Mar 28, 2021
By Zach Finkelstein
Professional singers in America spent the last year, by and large, underemployed and at home, counting the days until theatres reopen.
The American choral community reached a consensus early in the pandemic, quickened by a devastating outbreak in Skagit Valley, Washington. Without a widely distributed vaccine, many considered live group singing a âsuper-spreader event,â a public health hazard, and an insurmountable challenge. As a result, most professional choral ensembles and leading choral presenters like the Oregon Bach Festival at the University of Oregon moved entirely online until at least Summer 2022.
Yet in the Fall of 2020, 1-in-4 (27%) American colleges and universities opened in-person to students, faculty, and staff. The decision to bring students back to campus provided some music schools an opportunity. With students already there, with strict health and safety regulations instituted in partnership with government health authorities, with approval from the powers-that-be, and the financial means to reduce student risk, some music programs used their resources and expertise to explore live group singing.
Brigham Young University (BYU) figured out how to make it work in a big way.
The Choral Conducting and Ensembles Division, under the direction of Drs. Andrew Crane and Brent Wells, with the blessing of School of Music Director Dr. Diane Reich, did their homework and concluded that live rehearsals, with the proper safeguards, could be conducted with acceptable risk.
The choral division enrolled roughly 320 singers into six separate choirs and found a way to rehearse these choirs safely.
Out of 42,000 people in the âcampus community,â Brigham Young University currently has only 74 confirmed active COVID-19 cases (0.18%), and, out of 19,161 entry tests in January 2021, averaged less than a 1% (0.71%) positivity rate. (For a frame of reference, our Seattle neighborhood shows a positivity rate six times higher than the BYU campus.)
According to Drs. Crane, Wells, and Reich, no known cases of COVID-19 have been traced back to exposure in the music ensembles.
How did this happen? How is it even possible?
Through interviews with the choral faculty, the administration, and music students, Middleclass Artist will show how BYU managed six large choirs in the pandemic; how the School of Music showed an extraordinary level of due diligence and care regarding the health and safety of its students; and how BYU provided a âlifeline to studentsâ in their hour of need and a roadmap for professional ensembles to get back to work safely.
Spring 2020: âA Momentary Blipâ
Andy Crane is considered by his peers as one of the leading university choir conductors in the United States. In an average year, as coordinator of the Choral Conducting & Ensembles division at BYU, he oversees more than 600 student singers: the BYU Singers, Concert Choir, Menâs Chorus, Womenâs Chorus, and the non-audition University Chorale.
In February 2020, the BYU School of Music closed out another banner year with two sold-out Carmina Burana performances, followed by a choral and orchestra showcase in Salt Lake City on March 5 at the Western Division of the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association). Crane remembers, at the conference, âpeople were starting to talk about the pandemic.â An ACDA rep told him, âweâre not even sure if the other regional conferences are going to happen.â
Shortly after, BYU shut down in-person classes through the summer, âencouraging students to leave campus and return home to finish the winter semester through remote coursework.â The announcement effectively canceled the remainder of the BYU choral season.
The student president of the Menâs Chorus, junior Jared Ashby, describes feeling at the last rehearsal, âlike one of those rollercoasters where youâre attached to a crane, and it goes out, and then all of a sudden the floor drops out beneath you. We had so much anticipation, so much excitement for that final concert, and all of a sudden, we had our last rehearsal.â
Senior Daniel Clegg found the âout-of-the-blueâ news âespecially disappointing.â His professor, Rosalind Hall, planned to retire at the end of the 2020 school year, after 21 years as a director of the BYU Menâs Chorus and the Concert Choir. Her grand finale would be two final concerts, one at a Salt Lake City cathedral and the other at the Tabernacle in Temple Square. The school canceled them. As a member of both ensembles, Daniel felt âthat opportunity to sing with her one last time was ripped out from underneath us.â
Lindsay Bastian, a Masterâs student in piano performance and an avid choral singer, took the sudden announcement hard:
âIt was rough. Choir at BYU has been my family. I just fell in love with singing as an undergrad [at BYU] and have continued ever since. As opposed to being a piano major, where Iâm by myself in a practice room all day, choir is that place where I get to make music with other people and have that community that I donât get otherwise. Itâs one of my favorite things to do and my favorite place to be, so to lose that in a matter of hours was really difficult. I remember thinking, well, maybe this will just be done in a few weeks, and we can go back to school. But here we are, and itâs been a year.â
Chorister Bekah Johnson considers the Womenâs Chorus, led by Dr. Sonja Poulter, âa place of home and a place of safety for us. For that to be taken away, was really hard.â
Dr. Crane organized a âgoodbye mealâ with his students and finished a choral recording session the last day before BYU âkicked them out.â He remembers it as a painful and strange way to end the year, but he figured theyâd all be back to normal in the Fall- a âmomentary blip.â
"Doomsday" and the Colorado Studies
During what Crane calls the âperiod of uncertainty,â he strategized on what to do for the Fall. Crane talked every day with new choral conductor hire Dr. Brent Wells, texting back and forth about their findings, asking, âwhat are the dangers, whatâs new, what is the recent thinking on COVID?â
At the time, all the conductors heard stateside was, âchoral singing is over.â Both Drs. Crane and Wells referenced the Washington state outbreak that left âthree-quarters of the choir testing positive for COVID-19 or showing symptomsâ, as well as a âdoomsdayâ May 5 panel hosted by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), ACDA, Chorus America, and the Barbershop Harmony Society that concluded, "based on what we know now", âthere is no safe way for singers to rehearse together until a COVID-19 vaccine and a 95% effective treatment are in place.â
Everything Crane and Wells read suggested they could not have large choirs on stage, a hallmark of BYUâs popular program. But they refused to accept the âworst-case scenario,â asking, âIs anyone making it work? What is possible and still safe?â
The choral conductors consulted an extensive shared Google document from European choirs, what they called âThe Hub,â which provided details on how European ensembles were rehearsing, including social distancing measures, hall size, and mask use. They investigated downsizing their 180-person choirs to as few as 12 singers, as well as social distancing options ranging between six and 12 feet. They tested every singerâs mask prototype on the market for their choirs, settling on the impressive Resonance mask.
For the latest science on singing in the US, Crane and Wells reviewed cutting-edge research from Colorado on the performing arts. The first, an interdisciplinary study out of Colorado State University, focused on the effects of COVID-19 on the performing arts: âReducing Bioaerosol Emissions and Exposures in the Performing Arts: A Scientific Roadmap for a Safer Return from COVID-19.â Led by professor of mechanical engineering Dr. John Volckens and Dr. Dan Goble, the CSUâs director of the School of Music, Theater, and Dance, it focused primarily on back-to-work logistics for performers, answering questions like âhow far apart should the trumpet section be from the trombone section?â and âhow many singers can rehearse together or perform on a school stage?â.
The preliminary results from the study, conducted over the summer of 2020, tested 28 singers, actors, and dancers as well as 72 instrumentalists and showed evidence that the use of masks while singing âreduced vocal emissions of aerosols by 90% or more...with variability from person to person.â

(Source: CSU presentation by Dr. John Volckens, 8/17/2020, page 22)
According to the study, different conditions, such as the length of rehearsal time and the roomâs ventilation level, could significantly impact the risk of spreading infectious respiratory aerosols. For example, in the case of the Washington state âsuper-spreaderâ rehearsal that left most choir members testing positive or showing COVID symptoms,
A second 'Performing Arts Aerosol Study', led by Dr. Shelly Miller at the University of Colorado Boulder and Dr. Jelena Srebric of the University of Maryland, also showed promising initial results for mask efficacy and solo singing:

(Slide 25, University of Colorado Performing Arts Study, Drs. Shelly Miler and Jelena Srebric, Quoted from Drs. Crane and Wells Proposal, Slide 7)
To apply those findings, Drs. Crane and Wells relied on the âAerosol Transmission Estimatorâ, a tool created by University of Colorado-Boulder chemistry professor and CIRES fellow Dr. Jose L. Jiminez. Based on the latest peer-reviewed COVID-19 research, it showed that, by entering environmental parameters, such as the dimensions of the room and air turnover, and the parameters related to people and activity, including the number of people present and the percentage of people with masks, one could reasonably estimate the risks of live singing.
Like any model built on assumptions and simplification of a complex problem, the tool had its limitations. The model âdid not include droplet or contact/fomite transmission,â it assumed at least six feet of social distancing is respectedâ, and it focused âonly on the propagation of COVID-19 by aerosol transmission.â The research also relied on estimated numbers, such as âhow many infectious viruses are emitted by an infected person.â
Dr. Jiminez qualifies the work as follows: âwe trust the order of magnitude of the results and especially the relative strengths of different actions, such as increasing ventilation and wearing masks, but not the precise infection probabilities. Different actions have very different costs, so the hope is that the tool can help allocate limited resources to reduce the risk of infection most effectively.â He also notes in a disclaimer, âThe exact numerical results for a given case have more uncertainty. For example, if you obtain a 1% chance of infection, in reality, it could be 0.2% or 5%. But it wonât be 0.001% or 100%.â
Despite those limitations, the model proved an extraordinarily effective tool to estimate relative risk and the magnitude of that risk given the adoption of crucial safety measures, like wearing masks. With the Colorado research in-hand and the means to estimate the effects of aerosol transmission, Crane and Wells felt they could propose a reasonable risk assessment of conducting live choral rehearsals.
The BYU School of Music proposal showed two numbers: a âtypicalâ rehearsal, 45-minutes in length with their recommended safety measures, assuming one infected person in the room; as well as a âdoomsdayâ scenario, with an âasymptomatic super spreaderâ present, no HEPA filters, and an 80-minute rehearsal.
The model estimated their âtypical rehearsalâ as having a 0.29% infection rate for BYU students. The âdoomsdayâ scenario estimated a 3.95% infection rate.
Crane and Wells felt that, under the conditions recommended in the Colorado studies, in-person rehearsal of young singers at BYU would be possible and an acceptable risk.
A Greenlight for Live Singing
Dr. Diane Reich became Director of the BYU School of Music on July 1, 2020, and made student and faculty health and safety her top priority. In a video message to the School of Music, she said with regard to setting protocols, âyou donât want to see how close to the edge you can be. You want to be as far away from the edge as possible.â Reich also followed the research on singing and COVID-19 closely as a voice teacher, âwatching all the webinars and reading all the articles. It was challenging to filter through and figure out what we could really do.â Reich felt, âthereâs got to be a way we can sing again, although it might look different.â
Over the summer, the School of Music received the âgreen lightâ from BYU to return to on-campus learning. According to Crane, BYUâs official stance was that âeveryone had to wear a mask with six feet of social distance.â BYU also made mandatory daily symptom checks through an app called âHealthy Togetherâ in partnership with the Utah County Health Department.
Beyond those campus-wide restrictions, BYU gave the School of Music leeway to make their own decisions on in-person learning. According to Dr. Reich, âwe had general guidelines from the university, but not specifics for music because they really wanted to allow the departments and schools to figure out what was best for them and their discipline.â
Reich worked closely with ensemble directors in weekly meetings to set additional safety policies for the School of Music on topics ranging from foot traffic to practice rooms. For example, they settled on a âmiddle groundâ for handling practice rooms: each student could practice for a four-hour, then a masked student would clean the room and leave the door open for an hour. That allowed for three practice blocks a day per room. While ânot ideal,â Reich calculated this would allow each student the opportunity to practice three times a week in the facilities. The blocks didnât fill up, according to Reich, because of the studentsâ consideration for one another: âthose who had means to practice elsewhere stayed out of the rooms and left it for students with no place to practice.â
The School of Music measured every rehearsal space in the building and calculated the maximum capacity with six feet of distancing: 40 for instrumentalists and 44 for singers, including the conductor. The ensemble directors of the orchestras, bands, and six choirs split their groups according to room size, rehearsing the same repertoire separately. The ensembles would only play together fully when they could schedule an onstage rehearsal or at the performance.
Before rehearsals could begin, though, Dr. Crane and Dr. Wells had to settle student auditions. âOur live audition process is nuts,â Dr. Wells said. âFor three days, there are hundreds of kids milling around the choral hallway, going through a multi-stage audition process- how are we going to replicate that? How are we going to audition these kids?â
The school âbuilt the whole thing from the ground upâ in an online module that included sight-reading, range tests for high and low extremes, tonal memory, and a solo portion for each singer. The choral conductors spent weeks and weeks setting up the module and sifting through online auditions.
As an additional precaution, Dr. Reich instituted a policy across the entire BYU School of Music: no one would rehearse live for the first four weeks of classes. She intuited that the Fall return to campus might swell the number of cases (It did.) Reich wanted to ensure the School of Music did not contribute to an outbreak. A four-week start on Zoom, Reich stated, âwould give us an idea if we were on the right track with the protocols we had in place.â Dr. Reich also did not want studentsâ hopes dashed a second time; as chorister Jared Ashby said, âThey didnât want us to practice and rehearse a lot of music that would have to be canceled again.â
During the first month, the choral classes consisted of Zoom guest speakers and discussions about the repertoire. By the end of the month, Crane felt it had run its course- âItâs tough to sell talking about how great choral music is but not being able to do it.â
Masterâs student Lindsay Bastian âhoped and prayedâ live classes would happen and felt grateful for the month on Zoom. She said, âThe BYU choir directors did an awesome job of setting up speakers over Zoom with some big names and people that are important to us as a religious community.â
To start in-person rehearsals, Drs. Crane and Wells, in consultation with Dr. Reich, set forth strict guidelines:
Students must first complete the daily health check through the campus-wide âHealthy Togetherâ app
Singers and conductors must wear Resonance Singer Masks for every rehearsal and performance.
Singers must be spread 6' apart at all times.
Singers enter the rehearsal space from different floors to reduce crowding upon arrival and exit the rehearsal space via the opposite side of the room they entered.
Every singer sanitized their space with wipes upon arrival and has a specifically assigned chair in the rehearsal room.
Any student displaying COVID symptoms would be required to stay home and attend rehearsal over Zoom and follow BYU standard protocols for testing and quarantine.
A temperature check is required at every rehearsal.
All concerts are live-streamed and performed in an empty hall.
The choral division also installed 12 Medify Air MA-40-B1 V2.0 purifiers with H13 HEPA filters and placed them âstrategically throughout the rehearsal spaceâ based on square footage. It cost thousands of dollars to put air filters in the room but based on the Colorado studyâs risk assessment, turning over the air would be critical to managing infection.
With all these measures in place, the conductors could fit about 40 singers in the rehearsal hall in the mornings and evenings and credibly maintain social distance.
Instead of roughly 600 choral singers in the program, the BYU School of Music pared it down to six choirs of approximately 320 people:
40 BYU Singers (same size).
40 singers in the Concert Choir (down from roughly 90).
Two sections of 40 singers in the Menâs Chorus (down from 180).
Two sections of 40 singers in the Womenâs Chorus (down from 165).
A University Chorale daytime choir of 40 that rehearses in the School of Music and a University Chorale evening choir of 34 singers that rehearses outside the School of Music in a smaller hall. (Note these are two different auditioned choirs based on unique curricula. Before the pandemic, each section contained roughly 120 members with sign-up by "first come, first served", not audition.)
The 80-person choirs met on alternating days, split into two groups of 40. Half the choir would be live one day, and the other half would be on Zoom, muting themselves and singing along in their dorm rooms. The next day it would flip. The choirâs two halves stayed separate, except for three rehearsals a semester combined in the 1800-seat hall and the concert.
The conductors instituted a zero-tolerance policy if anyone had a âwhisperâ of a symptom: âif you wake up and you have a scratchy throat, youâre on Zoom,â Dr. Wells said. âOur response was always the same- play it as safe as we possibly can.â The choral program also had to significantly pare down the length of rehearsals and the number of performances. BYU choir âtypically runs a busy semester,â Crane said, âwith multiple concerts per semester and a busy touring schedule. In the Fall, with four weeks less to learn repertoire, we only had one concert with no live audiences, all live-streamed.â
âItâs not ideal,â Crane said. âThe first couple weeks were weird live, and we wondered ourselves, is this going to work? The singers werenât used to singing apart and, in the mask, that was a learning curve.â Now, to Dr. Wells, singing in a mask and social distancing âseem almost invisible.â
Graduate student Lindsay Bastian said the first rehearsal âwas like coming homeâ:
âIt was a mix of, âIâm so happy to be back and to feel this energy together,â and âThis is so much harder.â Itâs this interesting dichotomy the way weâre singing with masks and socially distanced- in one sense, we have to be so much more independent as singers. At the first rehearsal, I felt like I couldnât hear anybody. And at the same time, we have to rely on each other more. We have to trust each other, that, âthis section, theyâre going to come in when theyâre supposed to, even if I canât hear them, I have to trust them so I can sing my part.ââ
Lindsay finds singing in a thick, heavy singerâs mask frustrating, but itâs something sheâll âgladlyâ do if it means she can sing in person. The other precautions, like temperature checks at the start of rehearsal or wiping down her seat or the piano every time she plays, âarenât a big deal.â
Senior Daniel Clegg remembers the first rehearsal as a âbreath of fresh airâ: âthat first day was just beautiful. Even with masks.â
Jared, a junior in the Menâs chorus, found the transition to half-Zoom/half-masked âreally hardâ at first, âparticularly going from 180 to 40 people, thereâs a big difference.â But he sees it overall as a positive experience: âthere have been some benefits from it. It requires each singer to be more confident in individual parts. Youâre singing on an island; you canât rely on someone else. And you really have to pay attention to the singers near you wearing masks standing six feet away. I think our singers have come out stronger as a result of that.â
While Jared missed out on the social bonding of post-concert parties and regional choir tours, he also saw it as an âinvitation and a challenge, to find new and unique ways to socially interact, given the restrictions.â
Senior Bekah Johnson found that âonce the choir started getting into our rhythm, itâs been so good, I found so much peace and safety. âOh, Iâm back in choir! Back in my safe place.â

After nearly a year of live-streamed concerts, weekly rehearsals, and high-quality recording projects, Drs. Crane and Reich reported that no known cases of COVID-19 had been traced back to exposure in the music ensembles. The Winter 2021 semester at BYU has shown a less than 1% positivity rate on over 19,000 tests.
Andy Crane is grateful for the support from the School of Music and the state: âweâre privileged to make it work,â he said, âand itâs a privilege not everyone else had.â
Daniel, the senior chorister, also felt âso privilegedâ to be able to sing live. He added, âI know a lot of people canât. I look forward to the day we can sing with no masks as close to each other as we want.â
Singer Lindsay Bastian felt grateful for the âincredible supportâ from all the faculty and feels everybody in the choirs âhas been so consciousâ of the safety measures, ânot only for themselves but for each other.â She added, âit works. These safety precautions work. I hope that other people can learn from that and say, âwe can actually have choir, and we can do it safely.â And I know it does take a lot of resources. Weâre very blessed to have that.â
Dr. Reich feels âovertaken by appreciation and pride for her kids, seeing how much effort they were going through to make music in a strange situation.â She continued, âone of the perks of this is that the students have recognized how much they want to make music, and it reminded them of how great a privilege it is.â
A Lifeline to the Students
For the students, singing live has been a saving grace in an impossible time.
Dr. Wells notes that every Thursday, his choral rehearsal begins with a devotional, a sharing of feelings. Dr. Wells said the students talk about how singing âfeeds the soul, and even though we canât be our normal big choir, we still have this great community, singing impactful music.â For at least one student, it was âa ray of light in the darkness.â
Dr. Crane says, from his private conversations with his students, âthe fact that they have been able to sing in choir has literally saved their life in this time. All their other classes were online, but this is the one thing that got them out of the house, that got them interacting with people, and of course, the music itself is so healing. Thereâs not a day that goes by where there isnât gratitude expressed to be able to sing at all. I try to say it all the time from the podium. You donât realize this in Utah, there are so many people out there that canât do this.â
Graduate student Lindsay Bastian calls choir âher homeâ, âher family.â
She found out a few days ago her last stint in the choir, the summer 2021 choir tour, is canceled. Lindsay called it devastating: âI cried a lot about it, if weâre being honest.â At the same time, Lindsay feels âgrateful for the experienceâ sheâs had with the BYU choirs and âhow much choir has impacted her and helped her grow as a person and helped her make it through so many uncertain moments. âI donât know what the worldâs going to be like, but I know I have these friends, and this music, and this experience.â
Chorister Daniel Clegg would âabsolutelyâ sing in the choir another year, even with the same restrictions: âsinging is such a cathartic experience for me personally. Even with masks and social distancing, the feeling of joy I get singing with people is the same.â
Senior Bekah Johnson is âmuch more grateful for choirâ after the last year: âI had so many moments in choir where weâve been performing or rehearsing where Iâve just felt this togetherness. Through the music and through all the efforts through the BYU staff to help us feel included, Iâm still able to get that sense of fulfillment.â She would âabsolutelyâ sing in choir again, even with restrictions: âI need choir for my sanity. I need a place where I can feel valued and where I can contribute, and other people can help me back.â
Junior Jared Ashby saw rehearsals, for him and his peers, as a âlifelineâ: âthis is the class that gets them seeing other people doing an activity that they really enjoy. Music is already a lifeline to so many students who sing here at BYU, itâs a really positive experience, but even more so with the restrictions going on.â Jared looks forward to another year singing at BYU, even if the same restrictions are still in place: âI value the opportunity to sing and participate much more than any of the costs of restrictions.â
âThereâs a power to music that people need,â Jared said, âparticularly right now. Finding any way you can to safely allow people to participate in that power of music is worth it. Thereâs something about music that touches our souls and thatâs what the world needs right now.â
Zach Finkelstein is a professional classical tenor soloist, a senior marketing manager at a public opinion research and strategy firm, and the editor and founder of Middleclassartist.com.