Howell Teen Starts a Very Cool ‘Quarantined Choir’
This high schooler has come up with an amazing idea so that she and her fellow singing students can continue to perform.
Meet Kaitlyn Hulme and check out this video of her group:
Kaitlyn is 16 -years old and lives in Howell. She is a sophomore at Howell High School and enrolled in her school's International Baccalaureate program. She is also a regular member of her school's choir, under the direction of Regina McAllen, and has taken part in the New Jersey All Shore Chorus 2018-2019/2019-2020 and the New Jersey All State Chorus 2019-2020 which is by audition and quite an honor.
She decided to start The Quarantined Choir to help spread the gift of music during these difficult times, while also giving some of the teens she has worked with on the stage in the past a chance to perform even if their spring musicals/chorus concerts/cabarets were canceled due to COVID-19.
The members of the group range from ages 15-18, and they are all incredibly talented. Their first release, "Seasons of Love" from the Broadway musical "Rent" has already been featured on CBS Inside Edition! In one form or another, all of these teens have connections to musical theatre, whether they act on stage, do backstage crew, or are just extremely passionate about theatre.
The entire group is solely run by 16-year old Kaitlyn, as is the video editing portion of the project. The process begins by Kaitlyn purchasing the music, as well as any accompaniment track or performance tracks that may be needed. Following that, the music is given to the group members, and they learn the music almost completely independently.
Then each member records themselves singing the song that was assigned, harmony and all, and they send it to Kaitlyn to edit. The audio/video editing process takes over 24 hours in total to complete, and she usually gets in done within a span of 3 days. The work may be stressful, but the final product is always worth it. In addition to this one, the next video will be out sometime this week featuring a song from Dear Evan Hansen.
Kaitlyn says she would like to thank all of the members of The Quarantined Choir, along with her friends and family, who have supported her throughout this process.
Kaitlyn has been involved in the arts since a very young age, and has recently been seen performing with Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan, Pixie Dust Players in Rahway, and various other community theatres. She currently trains at The Professional Performance Prep with composer/writer Bobby Cronin in Little Silver, which is owned by co-owners Jessi Clayton and Theresa Fowler Pittius.
Click on the link below to see Kaitlyn's Quarantine Choir in their amazing production of Seasons Of Love from the Broadway show 'Rent'! And follow this group...to see bloopers, too (!) on Instagram @thequarantinedchoir