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Each vocalist recorded themselves singing a part in a song of Phillips' choosing, then Phillips, using a new computer and video and audio software provided by the choir, started the often tedious task of editing all those parts together to create one seamless performance.

All the voices had to match. Then the images had to pair up with the voices. Each mouth movement had to line up with the words coming out of the mouth. It took hours upon hours, work that Phillips happily committed to to bring together the choir he has led for a year and serve the audience that has supported the choir since it formed in 1984.

“We wanted to let our audiences know that we’re still around and making music," he said.

Each video takes three to four weeks from start to finish, and since that first performance of Ralph Vaughn Williams' "The Turtle Dove" in late June, which Phillips posted on the group's YouTube channel (), ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Repertory Singers has created five video performances. The most recent is a teaser for its virtual Christmas concert, "Home for the Holidays," which will debut on Dec. 11.

That performance will be the group's most ambitious: eight works, including piano solos and ensemble pieces, packaged in a PDF format that will remind viewers of the group's concert programs.

"The audience can click through each page as if they are holding a concert program, with the videos embedded in the PDF," Phillips explained last week, as he set to work editing the first couple of songs in the concert.

The choir has been working on the holiday concert for weeks. Phillips begins the process by filming himself conducting the choir with the music's score scrolling on the bottom. The singers then learn their parts before filming their performances. As each video comes in, Phillips, who learned how to edit video and audio early this summer, gets a head start editing the individual performances.

Painstakingly editing the audio is the most time-consuming part of the process, he said. The video part can take a full workday to put together.

"It's a lot," he said, but it's work Phillips said he enjoys for the most part.

“We could have done it for cheaper" — the choir invested $3,000 in the equipment, he said —  "but it makes my life so much easier when learning a new skill to just have it go fast," he said.

Phillips said the virtual performances, including the holiday concert, will serve as a reminder for the choir and the community of a year that turned everything upside down. 

"When we look back 20 years from now, we're going to remember that we didn't give up, we persevered," he said.

“Even though this is not what we wanted to happen, many of the members have told me they are so happy to still be singing,� he added. “They are still able to experience the joy of singing while creating something beautiful to share with the community.�