San Francisco Girls Chorus Partners with JackTrip Labs to Build Revolutionary New Virtual Statewide Curriculum, SFGConnect

The cutting edge of music meets the cutting edge of tech in SFGConnect, an upcoming San Francisco Girls Chorus program powered by Silicon Valley-developed JackTrip Labs. SFGConnect is an innovative pilot program that offers SFGC’s full choral and music theory curriculum to singers exclusively over the internet. SFGConnect will allow girls and gender expansive youth ages 7-10 to participate in SFGC’s accredited music training, even if they live hundreds of miles away, a first for the storied chorus. This ground-breaking virtual curriculum is made possible by JackTrip’s revolutionary Virtual Studio, which enables real-time music collaboration over hundreds of miles with high-quality audio–truly the next best thing to being in the same room.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus is more than a local institution. Their widely acclaimed ensembles have sung at events like the 2009 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama and have been honored with official San Francisco Girls Chorus Day proclamations by the mayor of San Francisco. They regularly participate in San Francisco Opera productions, tour internationally, and have performed with Bobby McFerrin, Kronos Quartet, Chanticleer, and the San Francisco Symphony. With over a dozen releases, they’ve even won multiple ASCAP and GRAMMY awards. In short, they’ve been blazing national and even global trails for nearly four and a half decades, offering music education to girls, young women, and gender expansive youth ages 4-18 that is second to none.

Critical to that success? The Chorus’s forward-thinking leadership, which has long maintained a dual focus on artistic innovation and fostering the best possible opportunities for its young members. It’s with both of these values in mind that they’ve partnered up with JackTrip Labs, whose groundbreaking Virtual Studio technology allows for true real-time collaboration even across hundreds of miles.

“We’ve been using JackTrip for two years now, during the entire pandemic,” says artistic director Valérie Sainte-Agathe. “It was the only technology that allowed a chorus of 50-100 choristers to sing together successfully over the internet. I was finally able to build a program, to have the music ready to sing during the pandemic.”

Rehearsing over JackTrip proved to be such a success, in fact, that the Chorus even used it for their 2021 live streamed Gala. “It was so moving for everybody,” Valérie continues. “Everybody was at home, but we were able to sing one of our songs live.”

This was JackTrip in action, breaking down barriers of time and space. Now, Valérie and her team are putting it to work in the much longer term, announcing SFGConnect as a new and regular part of the Chorus’s educational program starting in Fall 2022. SFGConnect is a pilot program using JackTrip Virtual Studio to implement the Chorus’s regular Level I curriculum, offering singers ages 7-10 the chance to learn from the SFGC even if they live many miles outside of the Bay Area or are otherwise unable to attend in-person rehearsals. As rigorous and rewarding as the in-person program, SFGConnect pushes the limits of music education astronomically, bringing it into a whole new realm by way of JackTrip’s near-instantaneous signals.

“It’s going to be an exploration,” says Valérie, who notes that the students will be working with experimentally-minded composer Danny Clay. “It’s really the opportunity to have this new medium as part of the creation of a piece that the group will present.”

For many singers, SFGConnect represents something even more fundamental: a chance to learn and grow with like-minded people.

“The technology aspect is important,” Valérie continues, “but what’s most important for me is the connection between people.”

JackTrip Labs co-founder Alan Hu agrees. “Put yourself in the shoes of a parent with a driven young singer, but because you live in a small community some 200 miles away, you can’t access SFGC even though your child is deserving of that level of training. All of a sudden, with this innovative SFGConnect program, your young singer can participate in this world-class organization to develop their musical skills to the highest level, to bond with other kids with similar capabilities. That social connection–that is the magic that I see here.”

Experimentation, innovation, and collaboration are at the heart of everything JackTrip Labs and SFGC do. SFGConnect promises to realize both groups’ expansive visions.

“In the future, I would like to see an entire version of the program online,” says Valérie, who makes it clear that, as always, the Chorus has no plans of slowing down. “This experience using JackTrip has opened doors. We can reach out to singers who are living throughout California, and maybe, if it’s possible later, throughout the country. Maybe around the world.”