ROUND ROCK, Texas — The Round Rock High School Dragon Choir typically sings together every week, but with coronavirus shutdowns, they've decided to form a virtual choir.
Round Rock ISD schools are closed until April 3, and the choir doesn't know if their big scheduled events are going to happen.
"When other people see your heart and they see your joy, it makes them feel the same way, too," said Raegan Grantham, the associate choir director at Round Rock High School. "We see them quite frequently, we have lots of community performances. We have about 300 singers in the department, so not being together over the next few weeks is going to be quite abnormal for them."
Grantham is collecting videos from her students and making her own virtual choir. She hopes it will bring a little bit of happiness to others, too.
"When we feel, maybe, hopeless or we start to feel despair, we turn to the thing that brings us light and joy. For us, as singers, that is the music," Grantham said. "Seeing young people continue to share their passion when they have huge obstacles in the way, I think it can be inspiring for people to see that no matter what happens here in the next few weeks, we're going to keep singing and we're going to keep making music."
Not knowing what will happen for the rest of the school year is hard on Grantham, too. It's her last semester at RRHS. She plans to teach choir in Houston next year.
"I was so looking forward to having these last special performances with them before I had to leave them to start a new job at a new school," Grantham said. "The thing that I have always tried to convey to my students is that we really never know when our last opportunity is going to present itself."
But she said it's not over yet and they plan to keep going and keep singing.
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"I think that seeing our human creativity can supersede even some of the darkest times and I think we, as artists and musicians, this is like the energy that we draw from," Grantham said. "It’s not the same as being together, but I’m just trying to do the best I can to help them fill that void. Instead of spending all that time feeling anxious and worried, hopefully, they can fill it with the things that they enjoy."
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