Millikin School of Music faculty team up for Zoom performance
The power of music can't be understated when it comes to building unity. At a time when a sense of community is needed the most, musicians around the world nowadays are coming together to share performances on social media.
Through the wonders of technology, Millikin University School of Music faculty members recently captivated audiences with a Zoom performance of the song "Music for Social Distancing," written by David MacDonald, who teaches music composition, theory and technology at Wichita State University. The piece was written during the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. David Cook, assistant professor of clarinet at Millikin, was introduced to the song when a former colleague shared it via Facebook. Cook thought the idea of performing the piece by teleconference was a fascinating response to the current global situation, and how musicians cannot perform with one another in the traditional way because of the pandemic.
"I acquired the music from David's (MacDonald) website and asked my instrumental colleagues in the School of Music if any of them would be interested in this experiment and luckily several of them agreed," Cook said. "I was also in contact with David via email with a few questions about the technical components of the piece, which he gladly answered and was thrilled to have a performance of the piece."
Cook was joined by Amanda Pond, adjunct faculty member on flute; Professor of Bassoon Claire Taylor; Professor of Music Emeritus Gary Shaw on trombone; Tim Schachtschneider, adjunct faculty member on tuba; and Dr. Jeremy Brunk, coordinator of percussion studies. Corey Seapy, director of bands at Millikin, served as conductor for the performance which was livestreamed on April 15.
"Directing an ensemble via video conference felt very strange," Seapy said. "Normally, conducting relies on listening to and affecting many simultaneous sounds, but Zoom is designed to 'zoom' in on one sound at a time. Once multiple people were playing at the same time, the software had a hard time prioritizing and balancing the composite musical texture. Thankfully, this piece was written to minimize the importance of precise rhythmic alignment and even capitalize on the latency issues that we all experience during video conferencing."
The group rehearsed the Saturday (April 11) before the live online performance. Claire Taylor was very excited about the rehearsal since much of her performing life has been shelved during the pandemic.
"It was definitely a different experience than performing together live, but it felt good anyway," said Taylor. "In some ways, it wasn't that strange. I've already been teaching private bassoon lessons online, so I'm somewhat used to listening to someone play over the internet and discussing it. Even though it was a strange substitute, there's nothing that makes me feel more like myself than playing music with others, especially these wonderful folks."
Tim Schachtschneider said the Zoom performance presented some unique audio and visual challenges.
"Given the situation we were in, I'm glad we were able to connect and experience music in real time," he noted.
Corey Seapy is hopeful that all musicians, conductors included, keep thinking outside the box and find ways to share music with one another. "Social distancing does not necessitate artistic distancing," he said.