As an opera singer and teacher, Sarah Cullins said when the coronavirus pandemic hit Vermont, it became clear that it might be a while before she and her students could perform in their regularly-scheduled shows and concerts.
Opera is typically performed indoors, in large, densely-packed spaces. Cullins said in the new world of Covid-19, it seemed like her line of work was a kind of a perfect storm for the virus’ spread. Performing arts venues were among the first sectors to be closed, and they may be among the last to come back when things return to normal.
But a few weeks after much of the state grinded to a halt, she realized the performance season might not have to end after all — it would just have to adapt. And if they did things right, it could solve two problems instead of one.
Cullins had been thinking about how she could give back to opera’s target audience — older Vermonters. The elderly were also the hardest hit by the virus, often unable to leave their nursing homes to visit friends and family.
Since those people could no longer go to the opera, Cullins decided she should bring the opera to them.
For the last several weeks, in a series they call Project Serenade, Cullins and her students have been travelling to nursing homes across the state, putting on outdoor, socially-distant performances for any facility that’s interested.
“I wanted to give [students] an opportunity to sing and also find some kind of service project we could all do to make some kind of a difference during the pandemic,” she said.
Cullins directs the Youth Opera Workshop of Vermont, a satellite program of the Middlebury Community Music Center. Cullins said the idea for the workshop came from her own Vermont high school experience. She had to choose between using her classical training in the chorus, or doing dramatic work in the musical theater department. With the opera workshop, she could let her students do both.
“I started this to give students the kind of experience I would have wanted in high school, which was a place to use my classical training, but in a dramatic setting,” Cullins said. “I knew there weren’t maybe a lot of kids doing strictly classical training, but enough to make a small little opera program.”
This was supposed to be the third semester of the program.
“I was trying to figure out a way to keep everyone singing, because it wasn’t just that our performances were cancelled — their high school musicals were cancelled, their choral concerts were cancelled, their chorus festivals were cancelled,” Cullins said.
Cullins said when she first floated the idea of Project Serenade to her students, there was a lot of interest. But it was hard to turn that into action, since so many of her students had gone months without singing or performing.
“It’s been really rough,” Cullins said. “Teenagers have lots of emotions and hormones, and this is a really hard thing to deal with, especially the seniors who are missing prom and graduation and don’t know if they’re actually going to get to college in the fall. A lot of them have had a hard time even getting up energy and will to sing at all.”
She said Project Serenade has made a big difference in turning students’ attitudes around.
“I said, I promise this is going to make you happy, and it’s going to make a difference in the lives of other people, and that’s going to make you feel useful, and it’s going to change things around. Now everyone’s on board,” Cullins said.
In early June, at one of Project Serenade’s performances, 50-plus residents of Pines Senior Living Community spaced themselves out in the facility’s backyard, sitting in lawn chairs, wearing sun hats, and eating ice cream sandwiches as Cullins and one of her students put on a half-hour long show of opera songs and musical theater pieces.
Cullins said this performance was the closest she’s ever been to the residents — though she still stayed outside of what she calls the 16-foot “danger zone” for singing. At some facilities, she said their only interaction with their audience is bravos shouted down from windows.
Grace Lane, a 16-year-old student, said the setup is very different than what she’s used to — no pianist, no indoor acoustics, and no rehearsal time before the performance. But she said getting to perform live is worth the inconveniences.
“I’m so excited to be at these nursing homes because I want to share music with people who aren’t necessarily getting music,” Lane said. “Music will always be a part of my life, but that’s not the way it is for everybody else, so I really want to share that.”
“It was wonderful,” said Pines resident Olga Laird. “I thought both of them were great. The young one, of course, has just started not too long ago, but boy she had it right on. I enjoyed it very much, I was so glad they could come.”
Laird said during the pandemic, her only real excursion has been daily walks. Otherwise, she said, she’s been pretty cooped up, so having something like this to switch up her schedule is “just marvelous.”
Cullins said that’s exactly the point of the project. She said since this is pretty much the only way music is happening this summer, they’ll keep at it as long as they can — and as long as they keep getting requests.
“We’re just trying to bring a little bit of hope, joy and music to the people who, honestly, would normally be our audience,” Cullins said. “It’s important to get to them, because they obviously can’t come to us.”
