Voiced reunited: chapel choir performs live after a year of virtual tunes

ANGELINA CAMPANILE, REPORTER: The Alice Millar Chapel is one again filled…with the sound of music.

KELLY KILLORIN, CHOIR MEMBER: It’s like you’re part of something bigger, and that feeling is really special.

CAMPANILE: Northwestern University junior Kelly Killorin sings for the Alice Millar chapel choir. Tonight marks the group’s first in person concert since February 2020. 

KELSEY NORTON, CHOIR MEMBER: When you’re singing alone, you can sing the words and the notes. But when you’re with other people, that’s what makes the music beautiful.

CAMPANILE: For sophomore Kelsey Norton, this is her first live performance at Northwestern.

NORTON: Performing in person, there’s just a different energy to it. And you can feel the energy of the people around you and you can connect with them in a way that brings the texts alive. More than zoom performance ever could.

NORTON: It was huge to be able to sing without masks. And to actually hear the chapel choir hear the diction. It was an amazing experience. 

HALEY FULLER, SENIOR CHOIR MEMBER: Just being with everyone and being able to sing some really fun hymns that a lot of us have sung many times before and to do it with the organ with everything else was great.

CAMPANILE: Senior Haley Fuller joined the chapel choir her first week at Northwestern. She says learning pieces over Zoom presented a new challenged –lagging internet and frozen video screens made it difficult to sing in perfect unison. 

FULLER: You didn’t really have the same fun and there definitely wasn’t the same community that we have in person.

CAMPANILE: Returning to live performances also gave Fuller the opportunity to make music using more than just her voice.

FULLER: I also liked ringing the bells. That was the highlight.

CAMPANILE: Fuller, Northon and Killorin will get to sing… and ring again in the chapel choir’s Christmas concert this December.

In Evanston, For WNUR News, I’m Angelina Campanile.