In-person choral and instrumental concerts return to Luverne Middle-High School Friday for the first time in more than a year.
For the sixth-grade band students, the 6 p.m. concert will be their first concert together as a group. Joining them will be the seventh- and eighth-grade band and sixth- through eighth-grade choirs.
The high school band and choir follow at 7:30 p.m.
Friday’s concerts will be livestreamed on the school’s Facebook page, with a limited number of spectators watching the in-person performances.
The coronavirus pandemic affected the secondary music department in March 2020, just as the high school band and choirs were rehearsing with guest clinicians in preparation for the large group contests.
The contests were canceled for a second year this spring.
Seana Graber is completing her 26th year of teaching choir in Luverne. She said the past 14 months have been difficult.
“I never imagined having to teach during a pandemic involving a virus that was airborne,” she said.
“As a singer, you breathe in deeper in order to sing though the phrases, and you expel more air when you are singing than when you speak, so I had to be very cautious and take every precaution to keep my singers and myself healthy.”
Since returning to in-person instruction in January, both Graber and band instructor James Jarvie have kept themselves and students masked and have kept students socially distanced, including splitting rehearsal times for smaller groups of students.
In the days leading up to Friday’s concerts, both instructors are glad this spring means the return of in-person concerts.
“I am happy I have been able to work with them this year, but I look forward to when we can sing in front of a large audience again and share our love of singing and music,” Graber said.