‘Recorded alone, but singing together’

05 May 2020 | Story Helen Swingler. Photos VOX Cape Town. Voice Nash Makado. Read time 10 min.
VOX performing in the Irma Stern Museum, adding a musical note to the museum’s winter botanical exhibition, conducted by Dr John Woodland.
VOX performing in the Irma Stern Museum, adding a musical note to the museum’s winter botanical exhibition, conducted by Dr John Woodland.
 

Performing artists have found themselves in a vacuum without their audiences during the COVID-19-imposed lockdown. But VOX Cape Town, created by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Dr John Woodland and Kyle Paulssen, got around lockdown by launching its first virtual choral performance for Freedom Day on 27 April.

Woodland is both founder and director of the ensemble, created in 2015 with a core of singers from the UCT Choir and the St George’s Singers. It still includes many UCT alumni. Paulssen is the group’s manager and creative impetus.

In the past five years, VOX has delivered over 80 performances in venues as diverse as UCT’s snug Irma Stern Museum (“an intimate recital”), the city’s Youngblood Gallery, Spier Wine Farm, and an orchestral performance for over 800 people in St George’s Cathedral – a collaboration with two other choirs.

Recorded alone, but singing togethe
Dr John Woodland with VOX Cape Town, in rehearsal at the Norval Foundation gallery.

Bringing their ensemble of 30 singers together for the virtual performance to mark the 26th anniversary of Freedom Day in South Africa was like creating a jigsaw puzzle – “recorded alone but singing together” – ensuring all the voices were aligned within and outside their voice parts, said Paulssen.

Woodland and Paulssen had chosen a simple motet to bring “comfort and hope” in these difficult times: “If ye love me”, based on John 14:15–17 from the Bible, written by one of England’s great composers, Thomas Tallis.

Each of the singers recorded their parts at home using a cellphone or computer microphone. The individual parts were then woven together to form the “rich choral tapestry”, explained Woodland. The accompanying meditative particle video was designed by Liam Pitcher, a UCT music alumnus.

“It’s not coincidental that Tallis lived through a period of great upheaval about 500 years ago during the English Renaissance,” said Woodland.

The phrase “great upheaval” now echoes around the world.

 

“We find ourselves yearning for the special intimacy of singing together.”

“We find ourselves yearning for the special intimacy of singing together, or the thrill of sharing a live performance with an audience,” Woodland said. “However, until it is safe to do so, we’re experimenting with new ways of meeting and making music together.”

Suzanne Buchanan, who has been in VOX since 2016, felt that it was a worthwhile activity: “Making the recordings was an excellent project even though it made me feel rather vulnerable. One of the things I just love about VOX is how it always stretches me.”

Baritone Shaun February commented: “Often we, as singers, are so busy listening to one another that we forget to listen to ourselves.”

And Tessa Gawith, who thought that “it was great to have something to work towards during lockdown”, loved how the track came together: “Wow – we still exist!”

VOX has delivered over 80 performances in venues as diverse as UCT’s Irma Stern Museum, the city’s Youngblood Gallery, Spier Wine Farm, and an orchestral performance for over 800 people in St George’s Cathedral – a collaboration with two other choirs.

Duet of art and science

Woodland and Paulssen’s interests present a fascinating overlap of art and science, chemistry and medicine respectively, and the strengths of interdisciplinarity.

Woodland is a postdoctoral medicinal chemist at the Drug Discovery and Development Centre. He is a scientist with interdisciplinary research experience and an interest in developing strategies, such as treatments and tools, to tackle the scourge of infectious disease. Working under Professor Kelly Chibale, he designs and synthesises potential drug leads for malaria.

His classical music background dates back to his school career, and as a student, he conducted the UCT Choir for three years from 2010 to 2012.

Paulssen is a final-year medical student and graduated with his MSc (Med) in clinical anatomy last year after studying the effects on connective tissue of breast cancer treatment in women and how it affects their quality of life. The study inspired him to become a physician, and he was admitted to the MBChB programme during his MSc.

Together their combined skillsets and interests span the entire range of translational medicine – from bench (basic science) to bedside (the clinic).

Paulssen, who is from the Netherlands, didn’t grow up with classical music. It was only after meeting Woodland, who sang with the St George’s Singers, conducted by Dr Barry Smith (a former staff member at UCT’s South African College of Music), that his interest was piqued. Paulssen was encouraged by Smith to join them one evening.

Recorded alone, but singing togethe
Kyle Paulssen at the Youngblood Gallery where VOX Cape Town performed their “In the Dark” concerts, titled “Evolution: From plainsong to polyphony”, spanning 1 000 years of choral music.

“I didn’t even know how to read music,” said Paulssen. But several of the singers took him under their wing and almost immediately he fell in love with singing in a choir.

“Music and science have much in common,” he said. “Music and the arts are about engaging with people, creativity, or sitting at your desk trying to puzzle things out, which is not very different from science or medicine. I’m able to apply aspects of my musical leadership to my studies and to practising medicine, and vice versa. Both activities can change people’s lives in positive, tangible ways, but can be strengthened when lessons learned in one discipline are applied to the other.”

Immersive experiences

VOX is fulfilling their dream of offering immersive musical experiences to their singers and audiences. Their hallmark is individually crafted and branded performances, incorporating lighting, ambience and elements of theatre, with themes drawn from life, art and unusual pairings such as wine and music tastings at Groot Constantia.

“We wanted to highlight that choral music doesn’t have to be ‘old’ music in church spaces or a concert hall. We wanted to create a multi-sensory experience, different from anything that anyone else is doing,” said Woodland.

 

“We wanted to highlight that choral music doesn’t have to be ‘old’ music in church spaces or a concert hall.”

These immersive experiences have seen some memorable concerts in unusual settings. The “Flower songs” performance at the Irma Stern Museum presented “a rich bouquet of botanically inspired choral music” to coincide with the museum’s 2019 winter botanical exhibition, “Tipping point: threatened plants of Southern Africa”.

The motif for the performance was the origami disa (a threatened plant on the Cape Peninsula and elsewhere), handmade for and pinned on each performer’s chest.

“We wanted to make it locally relevant; it’s not just a concert anywhere. It’s about our uniquely South African flora,” said Paulssen.

“We even discovered an old piece of Afrikaans music written 50 years ago, called ‘Rooi disa’. We managed to track it down and sang it as a parting meditation,” Woodland added.

Paulssen: “So we really try to put thought into every aspect of the performances.”

Earlier this year, they participated in two courses for the UCT Summer School, presented by the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies. These lecture-performances in the Baxter Concert Hall included favourite choruses by Handel such as “Zadok the Priest” and the “Hallelujah Chorus”.

Bathed in sound

Another of VOX’s experiments was performing without lights in the Youngblood Gallery in a series of performances called “In the Dark”, a concept by Biblioteek Productions. Guests were given blindfolds on arrival to heighten the darkness. This year the ensemble performed from the gallery’s mezzanine level in a programme called Evolution: From plainsong to polyphony”, spanning 1 000 years of choral music.

It provided a stark contrast – monastic music associated with dark cathedrals transformed by its contemporary setting in a modern gallery; “a modern-day cathedral,” Woodland quipped in his pre-concert talk.

 

“It works because the audience is also willing to step out of their comfort zone.”

“It works because the audience is also willing to step out of their comfort zone,” said Woodland.

Outreach work and online performances

VOX also has a strong outreach component, including cultural exchanges with other choirs and performances at schools, retirement villages and fundraisers. An example is the annual ArtAngels Fundraiser, which raised R2.7 million in 2018 for the Click Foundation, an initiative that addresses the country’s literacy crisis.

Although it is unclear when live performances will resume, VOX is not sitting still.

“Keep an eye out for more virtual choir performances and other online initiatives,” said Paulssen. Instead of focusing on the unpredictable time that lies ahead, VOX plans to celebrate what it has achieved over the past five years.

Woodland said, “Despite the uncertainty of the future, we are excited to evolve in a way that continues to serve our musical vision of creating immersive, imaginative experiences to enrich the life of the Mother City – and especially during this difficult time, we hope to bring comfort and beauty to people’s lives.”

Visit the VOX Cape Town website or follow them on social media @VOXCapeTown.

“If ye love me”, written by one of England’s great composers, Thomas Tallis. Each of the singers recorded their parts at home using a cellphone or computer microphone.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Please view the republishing articles page for more information.


Coronavirus Disease 2019 updates

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that caused President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster in South Africa on 15 March and implement a national lockdown from 26 March.

UCT is taking the threat of infection in our university community extremely seriously, and this page will be updated regularly with the latest COVID-19 information.

Campus updates

 
  •  Information
  •  Normal
  •  Caution
  •  Alert

Daily updates


Friday, 5 February 14:20, 5 February 2021
Monday, 4 January 16:50, 4 January 2021
Friday, 18 December 11:30, 18 December 2020
Thursday, 19 November 09:30, 19 November 2020
Friday, 13 November 12:40, 13 November 2020
Friday, 16 October 10:05, 16 October 2020
Wednesday, 14 October 12:50, 14 October 2020
Tuesday, 22 September 14:10, 22 September 2020
Friday, 11 September 10:05, 11 September 2020
Monday, 31 August 12:20, 31 August 2020
Wednesday, 12 August 10:20, 12 August 2020
Friday, 7 August 11:24, 7 August 2020
Thursday, 6 August 18:26, 6 August 2020
Monday, 27 July 14:00, 27 July 2020
Wednesday, 15 July 09:30, 15 July 2020
Monday, 13 July 14:25, 13 July 2020
Monday, 6 July 16:20, 6 July 2020
Thursday, 25 June 10:15, 25 June 2020
Tuesday, 23 June 12:30, 23 June 2020
Thursday, 18 June 17:35, 18 June 2020
Wednesday, 17 June 10:45, 17 June 2020
Tuesday, 2 June 12:20, 2 June 2020
Friday, 29 May 09:25, 29 May 2020
Monday, 25 May 14:00, 25 May 2020
Thursday, 21 May 12:00, 21 May 2020
Wednesday, 6 May 10:00, 6 May 2020
Tuesday, 5 May 17:05, 5 May 2020
Thursday, 30 April 17:10, 30 April 2020
Tuesday, 28 April 10:30, 28 April 2020
Friday, 24 April 09:35, 24 April 2020
Thursday, 23 April 17:00, 23 April 2020
Wednesday, 22 April 14:25, 22 April 2020
Monday, 20 April 17:45, 20 April 2020
Friday, 17 April 12:30, 17 April 2020
Thursday, 16 April 09:45, 16 April 2020
Tuesday, 14 April 11:30, 14 April 2020
Thursday, 9 April 09:00, 9 April 2020
Wednesday, 8 April 15:40, 8 April 2020
Wednesday, 1 April 15:50, 1 April 2020
Friday, 27 March 11:40, 27 March 2020
Thursday, 26 March 18:30, 26 March 2020
Tuesday, 24 March 15:40, 24 March 2020
Monday, 23 March 15:40, 23 March 2020
Friday, 20 March 16:00, 20 March 2020
Thursday, 19 March 09:15, 19 March 2020
Wednesday, 18 March 16:00, 18 March 2020
Tuesday, 17 March 12:50, 17 March 2020
Monday, 16 March 17:15, 16 March 2020

Campus communications


New SRC and other updates 16:44, 4 November 2020
Virtual graduation ceremonies 13:30, 21 October 2020
Online staff assembly and other updates 15:09, 30 September 2020
Fee adjustments and other updates 15:21, 16 September 2020
Call for proposals: TLC2020 10:15, 26 August 2020
SAULM survey and other updates 15:30, 5 August 2020
COVID-19 cases and other updates 15:26, 5 August 2020
New UCT Council and other updates 15:12, 15 July 2020
Upcoming UCT virtual events 09:30, 15 July 2020
Pre-paid data for UCT students 14:25, 22 April 2020
Update for postgraduate students 12:55, 20 April 2020
UCT Human Resources and COVID-19 16:05, 19 March 2020
UCT confirms second COVID-19 case 09:15, 19 March 2020
Update on UCT COVID-19 response 13:50, 11 March 2020
Update on COVID-19 17:37, 6 March 2020

Resources

Video messages from the Department of Medicine

Getting credible, evidence-based, accessible information and recommendations relating to COVID-19

The Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, are producing educational video material for use on digital platforms and in multiple languages. The information contained in these videos is authenticated and endorsed by the team of experts based in the Department of Medicine. Many of the recommendations are based on current best evidence and are aligned to provincial, national and international guidelines. For more information on UCT’s Department of Medicine, please visit the website.


To watch more videos like these, visit the Department of Medicine’s YouTube channel.

Useful information from UCT

External resources


News and opinions


Statements and media releases


Media releases



Read more  

Statements from Government



 
 

In an email to the UCT community, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said:
“COVID-19, caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, is a rapidly changing epidemic. [...] Information [...] will be updated as and when new information becomes available.”

 

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will be updating the UCT community regularly – as and when there are further updates. If you are concerned or need more information, students can contact the Student Wellness Service on 021 650 5620 or 021 650 1271 (after hours), while staff can contact 021 650 5685.

 

TOP