Shannon Rose McAuliffe and Daniel Gostin | Festina
The Socially Distanced Soul Economy
What do you do if your artistic passion is singing chamber and sacred choral music in glorious churches but churches are shut down due to Covid 19? If you are Shannon Rose McAuliffe and Daniel Gostin, you pivot your business model and turn Festina from a Portable Liturgical Choir for Hire into a Socially Distanced Portable Liturgical Choir for Hire! In the words of a Festina Fan, “Festina is a ‘choir of angels”.
For those of us new to the term Sacred Music - it is a thing. A big thing and a crazy old thing. According to Wikipedia, with an over 1000 year history, sacred/religious music is an integral part of every imaginable religion from Islamic, to Jewish, to Sikh, to Zoroastrian. Liturgical Music however is more of a Christian term. And while churches throughout the world have choirs made up of volunteer singers from their congregations, it is normal to hire outside professional singers to fortify the ranks of the choir, especially for important religious events such as Good Friday and Easter services, both the holiest of days in the Christian calendar. For the Catholics and Episcopalians in particular this is where they go all out with the “smells and bells”, as some would refer to it, to help worshipers deepen their religious practice in a more transportative and meditative way.
Full disclosure: The Creative Re/Frame Team works with Shannon Rose in her role as Manager of the Students Arts Program at MIT where Creative Re/Frame has led workshops and participated as judges and mentors for the MIT $15K Creative Arts Competition.
Shannon Rose and Dan launched Festina in 2018 and they are rightly proud of Festina’s ability to quickly pivot. Shannon Rose reflected that, “amidst almost 100% shut-downs and closures of performing arts organizations, Festina has been able to provide opportunities in the musical gig economy to artists who are struggling, and we're doing it in clever, socially-distant ways, which is no small feat! Many artists live paycheck-to-paycheck, and the sudden loss of most (if not all) of their income has been troublesome, to say the least. Having the opportunity to hire colleagues has enabled us to re-direct resources into the local gig economy in an immediate way. Several of us who are fortunate not to have lost all of our income have been donating our fees either to artist relief funds, or back into the organization so that we can continue to fund recording projects.”
Shannon Rose and Daniel are both performers, scholars, researchers and musicians who share a love of sacred music and met in 2016 on a gig and later became colleagues at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, MA. When their services for Easter 2020 were cancelled due to the pandemic, they quickly called upon their roster of other freelance singers for Festina to hold a socially distanced session in the empty but acoustically significant church in Chestnut Hill, MA that was recorded and broadcasted live to a far-reaching global audience for three services during Easter weekend. Here is a link to a podcast, CHORantine, hosted by another Festina member who gives greater detail on the mechanics for socially distance singing.
As Festina continues to move forward they are hoping to be able to continue to make glorious music and to serve the artistic and church communities in a time when live performances of professional music are not so hard to come by.
And just for fun check out Festina’s satirical video putting the CDC guidelines to liturgical music!
