Residents of Dormont on Sunday evening joined together in song while maintaining a healthy distance from each other.
Scattered voices burst forth at the prescribed hour of 7 p.m. with a rendition of “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the 1987 Broadway musical “Les Miserables.”
Organized by Amy Kline, the unrehearsed “CoronaChoir” continued through “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” before a second round of “Do You Hear the People Sing?”
The singers also added “Happy Birthday” as a nod to an anniversary of Dormont’s founding, just a week away.
“More than anything, I’ve been surprised by the people in the group posting their address and then posting that they were excited to meet their neighbors,” Kline said.
“There’s a community engagement happening even through we’re not supposed to even talk to each other right now.”
A global outbreak of covid-19 caused by a novel coronavirus has prompted calls for people to avoid public gatherings as much as possible.
Kline used the Facebook group Dormont Corona Choir to organize the singalong, spread over dozens of streets in her neighborhood. The singing was synced with the help of the Zoom video conferencing app.
More than 160 resident crooners could visualize their virtual chorus with the aid of a Google Map.
