A year ago, Federal Way Chorale shared its first virtual performance, a rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel, and received thousands of views. They were even featured on the local news.

It was the first of several more virtual performances from the Chorale, and just one example of how performing arts groups in Federal Way tackled the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s so much content out there, and everybody’s watching Netflix and YouTube and all this kind of stuff and so you have to figure out what’s going to hold their interest for long enough for them to watch,” said Jennie Hendrie, the Federal Way Chorale board of directors co-treasurer and Federal Way Symphony board president.

While the Chorale performed on Zoom and shared live videos on their Facebook and YouTube pages, the Federal Way Symphony and the Federal Way Youth Symphony took different approaches.

Both symphonies rented out spaces, recorded short pieces of content and posted the pre-recorded videos on their websites and social media pages.

“It was kind of a unique experience because we could reach not only Federal Way or the South King County area, but we could send a musical message around the world,” said Federal Way Youth Symphony executive director Rick Kong. “If family relatives were living in other countries, our members could send a web address.”

Producing virtual content came with more challenges than just trying to hold viewers’ attention.

Hendrie said two major challenges were production and direction. Their camera crew was not used to filming musicians and didn’t know who to focus on.

“Usually when you’re doing live music, you might think of production, but not post-production,” Hendrie said. “You don’t have to go in there after you’ve shot everything and figure out what content you’re going to use, what content you’re going to cut, who you’re going to turn off and who you’re going to turn down, what you’re going to emphasize.”

She added that because of all the unanticipated work in production virtual concerts required, they were no less expensive than live events.

The Federal Way Symphony was able to perform in-person concerts again for the first time in June with their “Reconnections” concert. All three organizations are hoping to move forward with more in-person performances after they all had to cancel last March.

The Federal Way Youth Symphony is hosting auditions in August and is hoping to start its in-person season in the fall.

“The concert that we did practice and had ready to go in March of 2020, we want to do that this year in October, if we have good numbers,” Kong said.

During the pandemic, all three organizations said funding became a concern, but they were able to receive grant money from 4Culture, a cultural funding agency in King County.

Although all three organizations shared their content with the community for free, they said they received many donations.

“The people of this community really stepped up to help,” Hendrie said. “And without the major donors for the symphony and the Chorale, we would have sunk.”

Winter concert 2019. Photo courtesy of Federal Way Chorale