The Cook DeVoices

The Limerick choir adapts in the face of the global pandemic

About three years ago, the idea for an employee choir blossomed in the mind of Alice O’Dwyer, the vice president of Human Resources (HR) at Cook Ireland in Limerick. She had done some research and discovered that the benefits of choir involvement were far-reaching including a deeper sense of connection and reduced stress levels for members. Alice asked a member of her team to look into the prospects of creating a choir and finding a conductor. A Limerick-based conductor, Claire O’Donoghue, was sourced to bring together the first Limerick employee choir.

The HR team asked all Limerick employees to come up with potential names for the ensemble. Creativity abounded and employees submitted their suggestions. However, the name Cook Medical DeVoices, a play on the word “devices,” became the resounding favorite. Now, with a clever name and a talented conductor, the choir was off to an excellent start.

Organizing the new choir

Claire organized the ensemble with altos, sopranos, and bass singers to achieve different harmonies. Dee Hussey, Internal Communications and Brand specialist, was one of the original members. She always loved singing and remembers singing in her secondary school’s choir and even in a few traditional Irish sessions in the pubs as she grew older, so becoming involved in the employee group was a natural choice for her.

“I love the power and emotion that comes from group singing,” Dee said. “It’s very social. Singing just lifts the soul.”

The choir, including men and women from across Cook Limerick, would meet for practice once a week in a local church near the main Cook building in Castletroy, Limerick. The choir delighted employees with a Christmas performance in the cafeterias of both the main building on O’Halloran Road and Hamilton House. The choir performed in the cafeterias of both Cook Limerick buildings, and they also sang at the Gala Awards ceremony in Cook Limerick, an elegant event to honor service awardees.

That was then. But this is now, during a pandemic. How would a choir, dependent on in-person practices and performances, survive a pandemic and resulting lockdowns?

Going virtual

During COVID, physical choir practices ended, and the fate of Cook Medical DeVoices was shaky at best. Dee had to leave the group due to family commitments with three young children. And for several months in 2020, the ensemble disbanded. Little did anyone realize that the choir could still connect people in the same way virtually.

Inspired by the Cork International Choral Festival, a gala virtual choral festival in May, Cook Medical DeVoices was reunited as a smaller but dedicated group of singers. Choir members worked together to complete an 8-week, online Choirworks’ program culminating in a moving, virtual presentation of the song “Homeward Bound” for the festival. During the online program, Claire stepped away from the choir, taking time to learn virtual methods in order to eventually lead the new virtual Devoices group again several months later.

Dee did not join the Cork International Choral Festival virtual performance, but she has now rejoined the ensemble alongside its current members: Lidia Rodriguez, Mary Finn, Helen Lavin, Anne Marie O’ Brien, Karen Gough, Tracy Hanly, Rocio Bautista Perez, Petra Hayes, and Margaret Ryan.

“I missed it. I felt a calling, and I’m back. Because it is virtual now, it’s more accessible for me because of the nature of family life,” Dee said.

“My three daughters love to sing. I guess my children listening to me singing in the upstairs room as part of the virtual choir brought music back into the house, which is only a positive. You don’t have to be perfect to enjoy music, and I want to show my children that, too. You don’t have to be the next Adele or the next Celine Dion.”

A new way to practice

Tuesday evening is choir evening for all DeVoices members. Every Tuesday at 7:30 pm, home computers are on and virtual practice begins.

“I live in a semi-detached house. So, I always send a text to give my neighbor the heads up, ‘It’s choir night. Sorry, if there’s anyone looking for a quiet night!’ She says she can’t hear me, but I think she is being polite,” Dee said with a chuckle. “Our kids could form a choir of their own at this stage. They have heard us sing the songs so much.”

Dee explained the unique way the members practice singing virtually.

“We see everyone’s faces during our virtual meeting on the computer screen. Everyone is muted, which is difficult to get your head around during a choir practice. Everyone is singing, but the only thing you hear is Claire playing the piano and you singing. It can be funny at times when we meet virtually. Occasionally, one of us will forget to put on our ‘mute.’ When someone sings then, it drowns out the other person. So suddenly you might hear someone else in full flow singing. It can be really funny. They might be a little embarrassed, but it actually adds a little bit of fun to the session. We laugh through it,” she said.

All choir members communicate through the chat feature during practice, asking questions or asking to repeat parts of the practice. To bring a virtual choir together for a show, ensemble members record their individual sessions and send them to Claire.

“Then all the pieces are put together by the editor, and you basically have a performance,” Claire said. “It ends up sounding really beautiful.”

The choir has already performed two virtual songs for Limerick Town Hall meetings in 2021. The “Homeward Bound” virtual performance by the DeVoices choir at the Cork International Choral Festival was shown at a recent Limerick Town Hall meeting. The song was reminiscent of the trials around COVID that all employees were experiencing, including the challenges of working from home and not seeing each other on a daily basis.

Watch the Cork International Choral Festival virtual performance by the DeVoices choir on YouTube by clicking the image below.

“The song helped people connect. We were missing each other,” Dee said, “It lifted all the choir members, spirits, too, because the entire company was able to see our performance.”

“Being virtual does kind of challenge the boundaries of how far this choir could potentially go. When things are virtual, they can cross the water, cross the world. Who knows where it will go?” Dee said with a smile.

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