Churches are still coping with a decline in choir members, four years after the pandemic.
Codi Linafelter always quotes Saint Augustine to describe her admiration for Catholic practice, choir and liturgical music. She says, "When you sing, you pray twice.”
Linafelter, 21, is a choir member at St. Augustine Church at University Avenue. She participates in the church's choir in the 5:30 p.m. mass every Sunday, expressing her faith through melodies.
But beneath her devoted enthusiasm to the church is also a disappointing ache. She’s acknowledged a smaller choir – a group that never seems to grow again after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was no longer an artistic outlet for people,” she said. “That transferred heavily into the church.”
Churches across Gainesville now have smaller choir numbers, leaving many to wonder if the pandemic will leave lasting effects.
The decrease is also experienced beyond North Central Florida. Church Music Association of America’s general manager, Janet Gorbitz, said the decline expanded in Tennessee, where the association resides, as well as in several states where the association traveled for its annual “Sacred Music Colloquia.”
The association canceled plans to attend Tampa for the event in 2020, and remained hopeful for the following year despite all the restrictions. It was no luck, Gorbitz said.
“You can’t sing like that,” she said. “So, we had to cancel 2021 as well.”
The association held another event in Maryland in 2022, which had a smaller turnout of less than 100 people compared to 250 people before the virus. Its most recent event in Detroit in 2023 saw an increase in numbers with around 185 participants attending. “It’s coming back this year, and we are expecting to be closer to our norm,” Gorbitz said.
Joy Banks, 59, a Gainesville resident and president of 1000 Voices of Florida, involved in music, choir and ministry for 48 years, has observed similar patterns at churches like Grace United Methodist Church and Mount Carmel Baptist Church.
Banks said that although some time has passed, some choirs’ attendance has remained limited and have morphed into praise and worship teams instead.
“Here are these people that have the gift of singing, they like to sing and there is nothing for them to do,” she said.
To ease the problem, 1000 Voices of Florida partnered with the city of Gainesville to start Community Choral Singing, a public and free singing session taking place on the last Friday of every month at Oakview Community Center.
Banks said the sessions have several goals.
One goal is pushing community members to pursue a rediscovered or newfound love of music and faith. Another goal is to provide a safe space for former choir members who haven't been able to return to singing at their churches. “Even if it’s not every Sunday, we can try to find other outlets,” she said.
Community Choral Singing started last December, and it’s had three sessions so far with the most recent session taking place late last month.
The first practice had six members, and it’s grown since then with more participants showing up every session, Banks said.
Ginny Mance, 67, is choir director at St. Patrick Catholic Church and said she’s dealt with dwindling numbers in the church’s choir. After months of mass transmitted via Zoom, Mance said she recalls the choir didn’t immediately start after restrictions were lifted. When the choir did return, several members did not return to sing.
“A lot of people fell off the vine,” she said. “Some were still traumatized.” Mance said she’s seen growth but she’s unsure of whether it can compare to prior experiences. “We went from 20 people to four, and now we’ve grown to 10, but it’s never totally right,” she said.
Mance said she recognizes the lasting fear the pandemic has brought upon communities, but she hopes people can eventually reconnect with the passion of singing as well as with their faith.
Nikki Cochran, 48, an elementary music teacher at St. Patrick Interparish School said a way the church is trying to combat the issue is to create more involvement from the school’s students.
Cochran and Mance have worked on forming a choir once a month for children, which they said has a positive impact with about 30 participating in the most recent session.
“Every pew was filled,” Cochran said. “People were excited about the kids singing, and it’s our hope it will bring a desire to create more musical interaction.”
Other churches like Westside Baptist Church on Newberry Road conquered the pandemic’s lingering effects. Rob Flint, 66, is the worship and music pastor at Westside, and believes a reason for the continued practice is a church’s “denominational lines.”
“It seems the more conservative the church is, theologically, the less they were worried about the virus,” he said. Before coming to Gainesville in May 2021, Flint was a member of Franklin Heights Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Va., where the church relocated to online services and paused choir during the pandemic.
To work around the disappearance of religious melody, Frank said that Franklin Heights’ praise team singers would pre-record music to play during services during the 2020 spring and summer.
The Virginia choir began meeting again in fall 2020 but disbanded after several members, including Flint, tested positive for the virus. The choir officially resumed before Flint left for Gainesville in April 2021, he said.
Flint said his churches in both Florida and Virginia are theologically conservative churches, and both were eager to resume services with some limitations.
He said Westside’s choir has continued to expand and currently has 50 to 65 members.
“Most of them are coming to church,” he said. “Our choir has grown and stayed steady.”
Daniela San Martin, an 18-year-old Miami resident devoted herself to choral singing in high school, but as the virus loomed, she took a break. Now, still absent from the passion and living in Gainesville, San Martin has felt hesitant to return to the choir loft because of the extended break. But eventually, she hopes to start singing again at St. Augustine.
“There were just a lot of changes especially singing with the mask,” she said.
Brenda Smith, 72, and Ronald Burrichter, 83, are members of First Presbyterian Church on Southwest Third Street. The married couple have devoted themselves to teaching music at the University of Florida as well as implementing the art into their faith. “The decline has been a problem everywhere,” Smith said.
The couple travels annually to Germany during the holiday season to immerse themselves in the nation’s music culture and faith practice. Even so, there has been a decrease in participation since the pandemic, she said.
“The choir in church is as important as the sermon,” Burrichter said. The couple said efforts to keep music alive during the pandemic were somewhat helpful. But distancing and muffled voices limited the power of the songs.
Beyond religious faith, a Gainesville a cappella chorus, specializing in barbershop style music, faced some limitations when showcasing its artistic energy.
Dave Jacobs, 58, the president of Barbergators has been with the group for 40 years. He joined as a sophomore at the University of Florida, and he recognized the shift in the chorus’ dynamic.
Jacobs said during his time as a member, the group had always been open about welcoming new members, but limitations were inevitable during the pandemic.
“Through Zoom it was difficult to do singing, so the meetings were more educational,” he said.
Although having lost members from the pandemic, the group continues to sing.
Linafelter said she thinks after the pandemic, the spark for singing and music could have withered away with a lot of people. She feels a similar presence at her church back at home in Idaho.
But she said she will continue to sing and spread her devotion in hopes that with time, will sing again, too.
“We sing to elevate the text of the mass,” she said. “To bring some of the Lord’s beauty through our music to elevate the text that brings together community.”