Like everyone else in the region who is used to performing often during the festive season, Fandango Quartet (Corinne Newell, tenor; Jan Carley, lead; Donya Metzger, baritone; Cammi MacKinlay, bass) was unfortunately looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing in December because of the restrictions caused by the pandemic!

As one after another of our gigs was canceled, a new booking at the Shipyards District in Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver was showing promise that it might actually come to fruition. We were cautiously optimistic as our contact bent over backwards to make sure that we would be able to perform safely within BC health guidelines. After lots of to-ing and fro-ing on different scenarios of where and how, it was decided that we could sing on the outdoor balcony of an art gallery overlooking Burrard Inlet, with our “audience” one floor below roaming on the boardwalks between Lonsdale Quay and the Shipyards District. We would be standing six feet apart, each on our own mic with monitors so we could hear one another. We would have our own sound technician and lots of socially distanced space indoors to rest in between sets. We were so happy to be able to agree to the conditions and that we were finally going to be able to sing together! Since “Christmas” is what we do, it simply wouldn’t have been the same without it!

Now, we would be fibbing if we told you everything went perfectly from the get-go……the gigs weren’t without their challenges! For one thing, when we sing with mics in normal performances, there would be one or two and we would still be standing close to one another. Six feet apart facing forward is not as conducive to hearing that unique barbershop sound or being able to create overtones! It also impacted our memories of lyrics for some reason….perhaps it had something to do with not being able to pick up physical clues from our quartet mates as to which words come next, but songs we’d been singing for years (words AND notes) suddenly left our brains! Fortunately, that problem resolved itself quite quickly. One clear benefit of each of us having our own mic that we noticed right away was that we were not over-singing, that there was no press in the sound and our technician was on board with making sure the balance of our voices was as close to correct as possible. A silver lining in what was a strange performing scenario for barbershop singers!

Singing outside also meant weather challenges – the first day, the sun was out and blazing right into the balcony. After peeling off layers, we actually got sunburned through our red sweaters! We had dressed for the cold, but it certainly wasn’t! The second day, the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees and we were bundled up in gloves, long underwear, thick socks – brr!

We also found that we had to keep our left brains engaged at a much higher level, as it was often hard to focus when a harbour seal or two would pop up in front of us, or eagles would be soaring overhead looking for food. The sights of tugboats guiding freighters out of the inlet, or the Seabuses going back and forth every fifteen minutes provided many distracted moments, as did the magnificent skyline of downtown Vancouver and the people wandering by down below. Without the ability to make eye contact and interact with our audience on a more personal level, we just had to imagine that we were bringing our usual Christmas cheer to the public!

All in all, we sang for two hours on two Saturdays and two Sundays in December and feel very fortunate that we had a client who went all out to make the gigs happen! We learned a lot about ourselves, what our comfort level is and how to overcome mental interference. We were reminded of why we do this and how much we love it, and how much we have missed singing together! 

Another season, another reason to look forward to 2021!

Fandango Quartet