Following the premiere of WHRO’s impactful documentary on the Virginia Chrorale’s Young Singers Project, WHRO-FM's “Morning Classics” host Dwight Davis sat down with Chuck Woodward, choral director at the Governor’s School for the Arts and artistic director for the Virginia Chorale to discuss the impact of the documentary as a part of the Arts Conversations podcast series. Listen in as Davis and Woodward talk about the history of the Young Singers Project, the origins of #twitterlieder, reactions to the documentary’s premiere, and more.

The piece performed in the documentary, #twitterlieder, came about thanks to a bet – Charles Anthony Sylvester, the author of the tweets which were set to music in the piece, wrote them on a bet with his friend, the Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. Whitacre found himself too busy to work on the project, but after Tim Seelig, director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, read the tweets, Seelig commissioned James Eakin to set the tweets to music, and #twitterlieder sprang forth from the paper.

The piece was written in three parts, Woodward describes in the interview: “[Sylvester] follows the line from youth to adulthood and then old age. Each of the tweets … [are] connected to those three themes in some way.” #twitterlieder examines the phases of life through social media, from tweeting about prom to espousing the benefits of fiber old age – some with a tongue-in-cheek humor, others looking at more mature topics, such as familial relationships.

Through the eyes of the social-media generation, the piece was perfect for the Young Singers Project – not only were the singers involved in the project familiar with the topic matter, but the music itself presented an adequate challenge for the chrorale singers. But, as Woodward noted, the documentary helped bring out the best in the students. “The fact that WHRO filmed this was such an incentive for [the students] to do their best… we were very proud of them the way that they stepped up, the way they worked with the crew from WHRO, the way they supported each other – it was quite a wonderful experience.”

#YoungSingersProject is available to view online from whro.org here. Watch a short preview of the documentary below.

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