Fortunately, ISB and other international schools are open for students to start a new school year. Students are ready to learn and work hard on extracurriculars such as auditions for plays, and concerts. This year is quite different. Thailand has been dealing with the pandemic really well with COVID restrictions, but residents are still expected to follow the guidelines. And of course, this applies to schools, due to these guidelines, many students and teachers are having a hard time engaging in school activities. Choir students and teachers are one of them. Singing requires exhaling and inhaling, and for them, the quality of the voice is everything. And yet, students must keep their masks on. So how do they practice singing during class? How did they prepare for the Choir Festival in October?

“We are in such an incredible position at ISB that we are healthy and safe,” says Ms. Fuson, the new Choir teacher in ISB. She claims that we are fortunate to have students singing in her class. She explained that her previous residency was in Milan, Italy. Milan was not as fortunate with the COVID experience compared to Bangkok. She said that she “had to quarantine ourselves [her and Milano residents] and could only go out when we needed to.”  Considering the situation here, we are indeed very fortunate to be able to attend school physically and only wear masks and socially distance ourselves which is very minimal compared to other places. 

Choir students wore masks and socially distanced themselves throughout the class. Especially while singing, wearing masks is a difficult challenge that students face every class. According to a choir student, some students have to pinch the masks away from the face to reduce the difficulty of breathing. This is very unfortunate because breathing is a key factor in singing. A student stated that they “wished we used face shields instead of masks, I think it’ll make singing easier”.  Ms. Fuson stated that “we will stick with what works, for now”. 

According to Ms. Fuson, the choir festival opened with some restrictions. The number of students and adults allowed to be in the Chevron Theatre was limited to 200 people. For those who were able to watch the concert virtually. The schools outside of Thailand virtually participated in the event by uploading videos of them singing. 

Overall, the pandemic has and will be a great learning experience for those around the world. We learn to adapt in situations that we might not be able to predict, but for us to continue holding events is an amazing feat. Practicing with restriction was really difficult, and especially for the choir students who had to perform in less than a month. Despite the pandemic, the Choir Festival was a huge success.