Students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music are having quite a change to their student recital performances this semester due to COVID-19.
Over 100 individual student recitals were scheduled at the start of the semester, so what is normally a time of coming together with friends and family in one of the GKSOM recital halls or maybe a venue off-campus, COVID-19 has changed it to where they will be the only one in the room for the performance. There won’t be any family. No friends. No fellow students. Not their faculty committee, or any random people from the public. No, just them, their instrument and their phone/computer to record it and, of course, not in a recital hall.
It’s quite an adjustment in what has become the new normal, although some students, who aren’t graduating this spring, have decided to postpone their performance to this fall. They are, however, coming up with some incredible ways to showcase their amazing talents.
Catherine Martinez, DMA Trumpet, was able to record her performance in a Westbrook Music Building classroom just days before the first level of campus shutdown. No one else was in the room at the time of the recording due to precautions that the GKSOM instituted to keep everyone safe.
How did Martinez prepare for it? For her it wasn’t really different because she didn’t know when preparing it would have to be done in this fashion. Her recital was scheduled for April 19 in Kimball Recital Hall.
“I chose the repertoire for my third DMA recital in January and began shedding the music during Christmas break,” Martinez said. “As far as my practice routine, I’d do my normal warm up and fundamentals routine, followed by about two hours of strictly repertoire practice. I knew parts of my recital would require focused practice and intentional rest, so I would use the Seconds app and create a practice session for each piece. It really helped me to internalize the music and use my time wisely! I didn’t know I’d be recording my recital, so it really didn’t change my approach or preparation.”
By the time she began practicing her repertoire with her pianist, the University announced its closing about a week later. Martinez’s recital focused on several contrasting musical styles and genres. The recital would've included a small chamber work for trumpet, trombone and piano composed by Christina Ensign titled, “A Sun Shines in the Darkest Corner,” but due to the strict social distancing rules, she had no choice but to leave the piece from the program. The rest of it included: Sonata Secunda by Giovanni Buenaventura Viviani; Caprice by Joseph Turrin; Concerto by Vittorio Giannini; Centennial Horizon by Kevin McKee. She posted Caprice to her music Instagram. You can view it here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-NCDe8gi7y/?igshid=16pp2h90z532e
“My wonderful accompanist, Madeline Rogers, worked tirelessly to learn the challenging accompaniment in a mere two weeks so that she could record her part separately using an external mic,” Martinez said. “She sent the music to me as mp3 files which I saved to my iTunes. From there, I reserved a classroom with Air Play capability. I played the music from my phone and recorded the recital via a microphone and laptop. Just me, a stand and my recorded accompaniment. After the recording process, I was able to edit the recordings into one large video recital to submit to my committee with a program and program notes.”
Malachi Million, DMA Jazz Studies Performance, prepared for his lecture recital by transcribing the music, preparing the lecture with a script, PowerPoint, assembled music for examples, and created backing tracks for performance. His was to take place March 31 in the Westbrook Recital Hall. His lecture recital was an analysis of Adam Rogers’ tune “FLAVA”. Million described it as a fusion of heavy metal of jazz, “FLAVA” has stylistic elements of funk, contemporary metal, blues rock, and jazz. Its musical characteristics are atonality, jazz vocabulary and song form, heavy metal timbre and group interplay, and funk grooves. It’s a tune that requires an open mind and most likely multiple listens to fully understand and appreciate but is well worth the listen.
He ended up recording it on April 1 alone from his home in Lincoln using an external webcam, external mic, amp, tv with Apple TV for PowerPoint, external speaker for musical examples/backing tracks, iPad for script, music stand for camera and mic, and separate stand for Mac.
DMA Double Bass Christian Chesanek, who’s performance was to take place April 2 in the Westbrook Recital Hall, created a script for himself to read off of and also prepared some musical examples to play as part of his lecture recital. His lecture recital, which he recorded from his family’s home in El Paso, Texas, is about using a set of six etudes for improvisation -- they are written for the bass and have extended techniques.
Chesanek used his iPad to record the video. He placed his computer out of sight from the camera to run the PowerPoint and used a foot switch to change the slides
How did it all compare to a normal recital that takes place in front of a crowd of people? Both Martinez and Million agreed that it was more difficult.
“It was by far more difficult than collaborating with my pianist in person,” Martinez said. “Luckily, I knew the piano accompaniment very well and was comfortable playing with it after only one rehearsal before school closed. Madeline followed my tempo markings closely, which made it easier to anticipate the piano part. Since I had been preparing and working hard on the repertoire, I was able to give my recital a full month early. As far as the musicality, I felt like much of the artistry was stripped from the performance since there was no in-person collaboration. However, I tried to play my part as musically as possible. In the end, I was very pleased with the finished product!”
Million added, “More difficult to juggle all the components. Make sure levels were good for audio and such.”
Chesanek said, “In some ways, it was nice to have more time to prepare. But it was easy to want to restart if I messed up anything.”
On a side note, the Glenn Korff School of Music has also started two new things for everyone to enjoy during this time. On its YouTube page they have a feature called KORFF AT HOME, which are video postings by GKSOM students. The GKSOM is also sharing items called CONNECTING to keep us all connected during this time.