On Easter Sunday, it’s a long-standing tradition for the Eden Prairie United Methodist Church choir to lead the congregation in Handel’s “Hallelujah” choir. But the church was silent in 2020, when the first wave of the pandemic pushed services online.

Musical director Megan Peterson had hoped the choir would be able to make its voice heard the following year. Instead, a second Pandemic Easter featured a choirless outdoor service and a shared YouTube video featuring the congregation raising “Hallelujah” signs to the beat of the music.

This Sunday, the rafters of the church will vibrate with the enthusiastic Easter oratorio.

“I expect tears,” Peterson said. “I think it’s really going to be like what we’ve traditionally been used to. And Easter is such a celebratory time. I think the experience this year is going to be really deep and felt by all of us to be able to come together again. .”

After two long years and largely without music, the Twin Cities church choirs returned in time to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with singing – from Handel’s choir to the everlasting hymn “The Lord is risen today.” .

Since scientists first said they were gathering to sing a high-risk activity in 2020, choir members have endured shifting pandemic protocols — from cold parking practices and masks that muffled their voices to solitary rehearsals of Zoom. Now most churches have lifted safety restrictions and welcomed choirs back to worship services (although some require choir members to be vaccinated, and many leaders said they are monitoring community rates of Covid-19).

Whether they’ve been back for months or just a few weeks, singers, directors and church leaders say this Easter is special.

“I think it will be Easter – singing without restraint,” said Bishop Richard Howell, pastor of Shiloh Temple International Ministries in Minneapolis. Having the choir as part of the services will help the congregation feel more comfortable, he said.

David Mennicke accepted. Mennicke, who leads the Bethlehem Lutheran Church choir, said keeping spirits up was a challenge without sacred music.

The virtual choir was a “stopper”, he said, “and not a replacement in any way.” If this taught Mennicke anything, it’s “how important it is to have a physical presence with each other.”

During the pandemic, online choir attendance lagged, Mennicke said, but 90% of choir members returned when in-person services resumed at the Minneapolis and Minnetonka sites in Bethlehem last September. At first, the choir’s attendance at worship services was limited, and like the congregation, they wore masks.

On Easter, however, Mennicke’s ensemble will sing the chorus “Hallelujah” and “Now the Green Blade Riseth” from the balcony as usual.

“Everyone is happy,” Mennicke said. “We are blessed to have been able to stay healthy and have had no outbreaks in the choir.”

Go back

After months without singing together, some members of the choir say they are a little rusty and are working on rebuilding their voices.

“A good number of us, and I include myself in that, have found that our singing skills have diminished a bit, such as breath support and the ability to sustain long phrases,” said Mark Squire, director worship and fine arts at Hennepin Avenue United. Methodist Church. “We have lost something in two years.”

Throughout the pandemic, Minneapolis soprano Naomi Staruch continued to make music, even when it meant singing quietly alone during Zoom rehearsals, hearing only her voice and the director’s piano notes. Like other members of the Bethlehem Lutheran Choir, she also recorded videos of herself singing. The videos were then painstakingly compiled by Bethlehem’s music director into a virtual anthem.

“Singing my part alone was difficult,” Staruch said. “Singing in a choir is not meant to be a solitary act.”

When the Eden Prairie United Methodist Church choir returned with in-person worship last fall, the ensemble had to adapt to singing while wearing masks to comply with the church’s mandate.

Director Peterson also had to adjust the tempo of the anthems to account for the extra effort of singing in a mask, slowing down some sections so the singers had time to catch their breath and speeding up others so they could insert a sentence in one breath. Much of this will now be unnecessary as the choir makes its happy Easter noise as masks are optional.

“Outside Voices”

The Roseville campus of Calvary Church, which offers both traditional service with a choir and contemporary service with a band, hosted live music at Easter services last year. Still, worship on Sunday will feel like a throwback to a time without restrictions, said worship arts pastor Tammie Junkans.

“It’s such a joy. Even last year we were limited in how many people we could put on the platform. So it feels like a celebration,” she said.

Junkans looks forward to standing with musicians behind her and the congregation in front as they join in an arrangement of “Behold our God.”

“It’s the best place to be, because it’s just this incredible wave of praise,” she said.

In-person worship returned to Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis during Lent. For the first Lenten service last month, choir organist Philip Brunelle chose the song “Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty.”

“Do you know the word WONDERFUL? With capital letters on each letter? he said. “It was. People were so thrilled.”

Easter will only bring more joy, he said. Like so many church choir leaders in the Twin Cities, Brunelle can’t wait to hear her entire congregation sing the “Hallelujah” chorus.

“For years I’ve said to the congregation, ‘You may be on the inside, but please use your outward voice.’ For them to really burst into song,” he said. “And they will. They will.”