“Can’t Stop the Music” (AKA - NSU Music during a Global Pandemic) COVID-19 certainly put a halt to many of our lives. It especially disrupted collaborative music teaching and music-making. Despite campus closing early, learning continued through the end of Spring 2020 semester via several creative distance learning measures put in place by our fantastic music faculty. Kudos to all the students that perservered through the end of the semester in alternate learning delivery methods for which they did not sign up. Here, we will feature just a small sampling of the innovative ways that learning continued.
The end of semester brought many challenges. One of those challenges was how students sheltering in at home could practice for piano classes without access to a piano at home. Piano professor, Dr. Ron Chioldi, collaborated with Saied Music of Tulsa and the College of Liberal Arts to arrange for electronic pianos to be delivered to students’ homes so that they could continue their studies. Thank you, Saied!
Dr. Ben Hay provided weekly meetings and playing sessions for the NSU trumpet studio and wider trumpet community by offering weekly warm up and playing sessions via Facebook Live and Zoom. He focused on fundamental playing techniques and also invited guest collaborators like, Ryan Beach (principal trumpet for Alabama Symphony Orchestra) and Joe Gray (Associate Director of Bands and trumpet instructor at the University of North Alabama).
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