Spreading Joy

Settle back, my friends.
Put on your headphones and click on the links interspersed throughout this Reflections column.
 
Then, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and escape for a few minutes from the multi-front cacophony of today’s world.
 
If you choose to bypass the text, that’s quite all right. You see, the music you’ll hear is far superior to any words that this scribe can place on the screen before you.
 
That said, some context might be helpful.
 
When Collegiate went remote back in March, teachers found themselves scrambling like crazy to reach students and maintain the flow and rhythm of the school year.
 
Circumstances could have caused throw-up-your-hands frustration, panic, and downright angst. Instead, this new-normal educational environment inspired heightened commitment and creativity and brought out the best in faculty – in this case the music faculty – and their students.
 
“I’m extremely proud of our teachers for recognizing that they had to pivot and change what they taught and how they taught in the virtual setting,” said Mike Boyd, director of performing arts. “They changed their curriculum. They got the kids to buy into it.”
 
The Collegiate Chorus and Orchestra teamed to present a moving rendition of “Hail Collegiate,” the alma mater. Considering that upwards of 50 students and three faculty directors – Melissa Jones, Bryan Hooten, and Ryan Blevins – were involved on the front line, the undertaking was both time consuming and labor intensive.
 
“It started with Ryan playing the piano to a metronome as a guide track, and the students used their phones to record their own parts at home,” Boyd said. “Playing to a metronome is not easy. It’s a learned skill. It speaks very highly to the musicianship of our kids.
 
“Once the kids uploaded their recordings to Google Drive, Andy Santalla (theater technician who actually came on duty during the shutdown) took the audio and mixed them together. Al Williamson (technical director) worked on the video aspect. He made all the tile squares you see in the window. Each of those squares is its own video.”
 
Boyd estimates that the 50 students totaled 200 hours of preparation and Santalla and Williamson 60 hours apiece. If you’re counting, that’s 320 hours or 13 days, 4 hours.
 
“That was a really impressive project,” Boyd said. “Pretty amazing.”
 
Amazing might also describe the effort of the Viridaur String Ensemble that produced Vivaldi’s “Concerto in A Minor RV, 522.”
 
“Melissa (Jones, JK-12 orchestra director) had been teaching students that piece,” Boyd said. “They would have played it along with several others in the Spring Concert. They tried playing to the metronome, but it wasn’t working out, so she had Donovan Williams (violin) play the track by himself. Anna Port (violin) recorded her part next so they could send their combined recordings as a reference track for the rest of the members.”
 
Easier said than done.
 
When you record something,” Boyd said, “you play it back and see all your mistakes. Then you record it again and again until it’s nearly perfect. Those kids spent a lot of time rehearsing. Once they got their tracks recorded, Melissa did the audio mixing and the video effects. She had to learn to do that on her own and became an engineer and a producer for both audio and video.”
 
No less impressive are several other collaborations, all directed and performed remotely.
  • The 5th Grade Chorus, under Blevins’ leadership, performingBaraka Na Wewe.”
  • The Upper School Jazz Combo performing Sludge Funk and Skinny Time,” which its members composed. And the 4th Grade Band playing Recess Blues which Hooten, who directs both groups, composed.
  • The Guitar Ensemble led by David Robinson performing Be Thou My Visionas part of a tribute (beginning at 16:23) to the Class of 2020.
Responses to each musical rendering have been overwhelmingly positive.
 
“Our department rose to the occasion,” Boyd said. “They took a challenging situation and did great things. What they’ve seen as their mission is to share and spread joy in any way that they can, and they’ve done it so willingly. They didn’t realize the impact the efforts would have when our community really needed it.”
 
 
 
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