A rts Family Tree S prouts C onnections B etween N ew A rtists and M entors
By Rebecca Alston ’22 Reporter
This year, students seeking guidance from veteran artists can fnd it through the new Arts Family Tree, a networking and mentorship program started by Sabrina Carlier ’21 that connects artists from diferent disciplines and backgrounds.
a close-knit support system for artists, where experienced upper classmen can provide knowledge to arts greenhorns, ranging from
by Tony Lee/The Choate News
advice about arts courses to opportunities in their specifc concentrations. Carlier explained, “Having a connection to another student in the same discipline but diferent grade and experience level will allow students to get mentorship in whatever their journey as an artist may be.”
for the Choate Arts Department. Although she initially focused on ballet before Choate, Carlier found a home in the theater program and would like to encourage other young artists to branch out and explore diferent art felds.
Interested students can join the Family Tree by flling out a short form posted on the student portal, in which they identify their form, time zone, and art discipline(s). Prior experience is not a prerequisite to join; anyone interested in the arts is welcome. Each student is then placed into a “branch” of the tree, determined by their primary feld of study.
Carlier clarifed that multidisciplinary artists, such as a visual artist who wants to venture into dance, are also welcome. According to Carlier, the program embraces how interconnected the arts are and hopes members of the Family Tree will frequently collaborate across disciplines. In fact, she chose to call the program a “Family Tree” in order to emphasize her goal of connecting artists of all
diferent felds and levels of experience and mastery.
Fifth and sixth form mentors in the family tree will plan several meetings throughout each term. “Within the coming weeks, each branch will have their frst gathering and start getting to know each other,” said Carlier, and assured that all safety guidelines will be followed for in-person meetings.
In order to foster and preserve long-lasting connections, students will remain in the program even after graduating and will transition to being an alumni mentor in their designated branch. Currently, the Arts Family Tree only consists of current Choate students, but Carlier hopes to invite alumni into the program within a few months.
Although the initial deadline of September 13 has passed, Carlier still encourages anyone interested in being involved in the Arts Family Tree to join through the form on the student portal.
Rebecca Alston may be reached at ralston22@choate.edu
“Choate Creates” Showcases Student Art
By Reagan Bajus ’22 Reporter
The social isolation of the last six months has given Choate students across the globe time to fnd a new interest or pick up an old hobby. When virtual learning began this past spring term, Joy An ’23 worried that without access to campus and the physical sense of community, many Choate students would lose the inspiration and motivation to explore their creative side. Her solution was to launch Choate Creates, a prompt-based, monthly art showcase displayed on the Choate Student Council Instagram account and in allschool emails. An credited Inktober as her main inspiration for the initiative. Started in 2009 and a popular tradition to this day, Inktober challenges artists to create one ink drawing per day for the month of October, each day lining up with a single word from the ofcial prompt list.
“It struck me that it was maybe harder to fnd inspiration for art in quarantine,” An said. “I cre
Celeste van Dokkum ’23, who has been drawing since middle school, is a frequent participant in Choate Creates. “It gives me a chance to be creative,” van Dokkum said. “It’s nice to have something that forces you to do art because, with classes and everything, it’s kind of hard to prioritize that.”
“If there’s a good prompt, then I’m like, ‘I have an idea for this! I’m going to draw it!’” van Dokkum continued. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but you get excited about it. It’s fun.”
A dancer and violinist, An admitted that she is not very good at drawing but appreciates the art nonetheless. According to An, being in orchestra developed her love of how music, visual art, and dance can melt together and become one. She cites art as a powerful reminder of the universal languages that connect us, transcending time, distance, and cultural barriers.
An’s goal is for Choate Creates to become a monthly reminder both that art has the ability to connect students worldwide, and that people are spiration in the world despite the
By Adrienne Chacón ’22
Copy Editor
Art can often be a response to current events and changes in culture or a refection of people’s emotions during tumultuous times.
Galvanized by the recent calls for racial and social justice, as well as the ongoing pandemic, students at Choate joined students from fve other New England schools — Kingswood Oxford School, The Loomis Chafee School, Deerfeld Academy, The Hotchkiss School, and Phillips Exeter Academy — to form the Renaissance Ensemble and create art inspired by the current moment.
On August 30, as a fundraiser for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), the Renaissance Ensemble debuted their concert “The Key to Change” via YouTube.
Hotchkiss student Benjamin Weiss ’21 gave a statement on the formation and tenets of the Ensemble: “A group of eleven strangers with the connection of being high school students, of having love and passion for musical theater … got together on Zoom to open their hearts and do what they love. From that, the Renaissance Ensemble was born.”
Since the original Renaissance era was born from the bubonic plague, the Renaissance Ensemble was fttingly born from the coronavirus pandemic.
Choate students contributed a rendition of “Wait For It” from Hamilton: An American Musi-
cal. The video featured soloists Maxwell Brown ’21, Lucas Eggers ’21, Eliza Marovitz ’21, Dominic Thomas ’21, Cristian Castro ’22, and Skye Figueroa ’22; the ensemble was comprised of Sabrina Carlier ’21, Will Flamm ’21, Emily Goodwin ’21, Matthew Syms ’21, and Ava Maha ’23.
“The Ensemble provided a sense of unity in a lonely time,” Maha said. “Virtual rehearsal was a great way to rekindle friendships with familiar faces.”
The Ensemble has a focus on social justice; as part of “The Key of Change” performance, the Ensemble started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the LDF. The group expressed that their beliefs center on progress and equality, voicing their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Furthermore, they stated that systemic change is necessary to bring about equality, and the arts have the power to open hearts and minds and inspire change.
“In our schools, institutions that pride themselves as learning communities of diverse and supportive members, we’ve heard countless stories on how that hasn’t been and still is not the case,” Weiss said. “Your voice has an impact. You have an impact. What you learn, what you do with that knowledge has an impact,” he continued. “So share it, find others, speak out, make change, because your voice matters.”
By Angel Guo ’22 Sta Reporter
Since last year’s virtual spring term, Choate’s theater, music ensembles, and a cappella groups have adapted to the School’s “new normal” and are ready to embark upon the 2020-2021 school year with innovative ideas to solve the difculties imposed by distance learning — starting with auditions.
Given the current circumstances, theater cannot exist in its traditional form of stage productions attended by a physical audience. Adapting to this unprecedented situation, Mrs. Kate Doak, English teacher and director of this term’s main production, co-wrote the fall play Take-Away with a group of students — Ethan Bardoe ’21, Maxwell Brown ’21, Eliza Marovitz ’21, and Audrey Lim ’23 — over Zoom this summer.
“I decided to write a play because we were having problems getting rights to shows for Zoom, and they all felt like they would be a lesser version of themselves if staged in Zoom,” Mrs. Doak said. “So we wrote something towards Zoom and screens. We wanted to craft something that could be staged no matter the circumstances of Choate's term.”
As Take-Away explores an unconventional form of theater that is staged virtually, Mrs. Doak and the students who co-wrote the play decided that it was essential to hold the auditions through Zoom to see how diferent parts played out on camera and on the online platform.
Y EAR WI T H O NLINE A UDI T I O NS
Whereas Take-Away conducted its auditions through Zoom, a cappella groups on campus received their auditions through Google Forms and Dropbox fles. Auditioning students each submitted an audio recording showing of their vocal skills through Dropbox, and select students will be further interviewed in callbacks. Although the deadline for auditions and the announcement date for callbacks were initially set for September 16 and 21, respectively, a shortage of auditioning students forced the groups to tentatively extend the dates to October 4 and 11.
Chloe Brink ’21, co-president of Lilith, one of two all-female a cappella groups on campus, acknowledged the difculty of assessing some aspects of students’ abilities through recordings. However, since a cappella’s main focus is on the members’ voices, Brink was confdent about the efcacy of online auditions. “Recordings don’t change your voice too much, and through them we can have a general idea about the singer,” said Brink.
The fall play held auditions through video call; a cappella through recording fles; instrumental ensembles approached auditions with a hybrid of both. Returning ensemble members were only required to submit a recording while new students had to each schedule a live Zoom call with Mr. Gene Wie, Instrumental Ensembles Director. Mr. Wie said he was more generous in assessing students’ abilities during real-time Zoom auditions than via recordings. Since self-taped videos could be recorded multiple times, artists have the freedom to record an unlimited number of times until they capture their best attempt. In contrast, video call meetings, similar to in-person auditions, are one-shot opportunities that can cause stress and anxiety, afecting musicians’ performances. Instead of focusing on catching minor mistakes during auditions, Mr. Wie said he evaluates students mainly on their ability to play the symphony pieces and
their rhythmic integrity, as this indicates if students can play cohesively with other members in an ensemble. As Mr. Wie said, “The deciding factor is rhythm, rhythm, rhythm!” Lauren Kee ’24, a third-former in the Symphony Orchestra, preferred auditioning through recording to performing in person. Although she is a new student, Kee submitted a recording since she was unable to schedule a meeting due to time zone diferences.
“Recordings were better for me because I didn't need to compare my performance to other people. I was just trying to outcompete myself,” Kee said. However, she noted that recorded auditions lacked interactions with the conductor, which is essential in understanding the conductor’s expectations. Whether future auditions will be online for certain theater, a cappella, or instrumental groups after the pandemic remains unknown.
Angel Guo may be reached at aguo22@choate.edu
Graphic
Choate
Dancers
Pirouette into the New Normal
This year, the phrase “dance like nobody’s watching” takes on a whole new meaning for Choate dancers. After a slew of sudden Covid-19-related cancellations in the spring term, the dance program is back on its feet (or tiptoes, perhaps) this fall with remote rehearsals and choreographies specifcally designed for virtual performances.
Since September, all dance classes and rehearsals have been held online through Zoom. Instead of dancing together in the Colony Hall Dance Studio, students attend classes alone in their dorm rooms or bedrooms — in many cases hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other.
But what happens when a 4:00 p.m. practice at Choate is
at 4:00 a.m. for dancers in Asia?
It’s a challenge that Jenny Guo ’21 and Madison Lee ’22, who are from Hong Kong and Seoul, respectively, have taken into their own hands. Instead of skipping rehearsals completely, the two dance leaders are teaching their own classes twice a week at times more accessible for international dancers. Guo’s class centers around contemporary dance, while Lee’s focuses on ballet.
“I’m very excited about the project,” Guo said. “I like the opportunity to extend the dance program outside of the Choate campus and to be able to share it with different students all over the world.”
Dancers have also had to make practical changes regarding the way they learn choreography. Mirielle Ma ’21, a Dance Company Leader who is choreographing a dance en pointe — a
special form of ballet — takes an asynchronous approach when relaying choreography to her dancers. “I’ve been recording little clips of me doing choreography in my basement or outside and then sending it to my dancers and asking them to learn in whatever way possible — in their own rooms or whatever space they can get,” Ma said.
The virtual nature of dance rehearsals also allows dancers to explore aspects of the craft that they’d previously left untouched. For example, some dancers are choreographing what they call “screen dances” — pre-recorded dances that will eventually be shown alongside in-person dances at the concert next spring.
Laya Raj ’24, a third-former who joined Dance Company this year, has enjoyed the opportunity to work with “video as a medium”
during virtual practices. She said of combining cinematography with dance, “We’ve been working on getting really close to the camera, then moving far away, and then entering the frame again.”
While dancers have found innovative ways to continue practicing together despite the miles of distance between one another, some of the dance program’s traditions have been difcult to replicate virtually. Dance leaders are trying to reimagine some of Dance Company’s most cherished traditions in an online setting — such as the company’s frst meeting of the year, which is often a memorable moment for new and returning dancers alike.
“Usually we’d be sitting in a circle in the dance studio and introducing ourselves ... this year, it was pretty weird seeing everyone’s faces on a Zoom screen,”
Guo said. “However, it’s tradition, and it was nice to have that sense of community again.”
The dance leaders have also been focused on ensuring new students are warmly welcomed into the program. Ma said, “We’ve been hosting these little dance parties, where we invite all of the freshmen to come on Zoom. We talk to them and show them clips of our old shows.”
Raj, who joined the program this September, has enjoyed her experience so far, though she’s still getting to know everybody.
“I don’t really know much about everyone’s personalities yet, but I think I know them as dancers now,” she said.
Despite the obstacles the dance programs faced this fall, Ma treasured small moments when she got to spend time with fellow dancer leaders on Zoom.
“The Dance Company presidents and I spent, like, four hours one Sunday morning on Zoom putting together cast lists,” she said. “It just felt like what dance used to be. All of us are such good friends, and we would spend so much time talking.”
This fall, the dance program is planning to perform for the frst time since winter term last year. Traditionally, Student Choreographed Scenes (SCS) takes place every December, but this year, the dance performance will debut in November due to the remote learning schedule. The program leaders also hope to be able to put on the annual dance concert in late spring.
Kate Bailey may be reached at kbailey22@choate.edu
CERAMICS TAKES A DIGITAL SPIN
From birthday parties to traveling to hugs, Covid-19 has robbed us of many simple joys in life. This school year, it’s also taking away the ceramics courses traditionally ofered in the Dodge Shops studio. Replacing the previous ceramics oferings is a similar studio art course called The Art of the Handmade, created and taught by ceramics teacher and Visual Arts Concentration Program adviser Mr. Aaron Sober.
In a similar fashion to the original ceramics classes, students taking The Art of the Handmade learn about how historical artisans and craftsmen contributed to their local societies with their artwork, as well as how handcrafted art infuenced diferent cultures around the world. The course features several projects that allow students not only to tell stories through artwork, but also to explore topics on social justice, religion, and various cultural rituals.
Though both iterations of the course study the same themes and ideas, this new course difers from previous ceramics classes in how students engage with art. “Instead of making sculptures and things with our hands, we will be making art on the iPad,” Mr. Sober said. While the course has previously focused on clay as its primary medium, this year’s spotlight is on the digital drawing and editing
app Procreate, which is provided for free on every Choate student’s iPad. Students use Procreate for animations and photo editing, which are two components of digital art never before explored in ceramics classes.
In addition to iPads and Apple Pencils, students also work with an array of physical tools — although much fewer than in previous years — such as traditional pencil and paper, mixed media such as acrylic paint, and oil-based clay.
The Art of the Handmade also features a unique ritual: every class, Mr. Sober greets students by playing a song that, he says, helps them enter the mental realm of creativity and gain focus for their artistic work. Mr. Sober’s class also includes lectures, readings, videos, podcasts, and Zoom tours of art studios, which give students an inside glimpse into how diferent artists have continued to create art during the pandemic.
Mr. Sober hopes the virtual set-up of the course will help familiarize students with digital art, expand their artistic vocabularies, and develop their ability to visualize and describe images. “We are being bombarded with digital images everyday. It is important to know that we understand images better if you create them,” he said.
MUSIC ENSEMBLES CONFRONT PANDEMIC CHALLENGES WITH CREATIVITY
It’s time for orchestra rehearsal. When you enter the room, you expect to see the familiar rows and rows of faces and instruments — but this year, awkward smiles greet you from muted laptops, and your stand partner waves to you from his room across the country. In these new socially-distant rehearsals, music ensembles are fnding ways to replicate the in-person experience with new practices such as conducting score analysis and playing with backing tracks.
This school year’s new academic schedule, which was specifcally designed to accommodate remote learning students in various time zones, presented many hurdles for ensembles regarding scheduling. Every
ensemble has had to shift their rehearsals from their traditional evening time slots to daytime class blocks. Ultimately, Symphony Orchestra was designated to meet during D block throughout the week and String Orchestra during H block on Mondays and Thursdays.
Conficting schedules have meant several former orchestra players were unable to rejoin the ensemble this year. The timezone diferences and in-dorm quarantine posed challenges even for members who were able to participate, preventing them from playing with the group during the designated meeting times.
Recognizing the impossibility of coordinating convenient rehearsal times for every member, Instrumental Ensembles
Director Mr. Gene Wie shifted the focus of music rehearsals this year to score analysis and
sight-reading, which can both be done asynchronously.
During synchronous rehearsals, in order to simulate the familiar orchestra environment where students play with each other concurrently, Mr. Wie created a backing track using Logic Pro to paste the music score and generate a sound sample through the recordings of a professional orchestra. During rehearsals, Mr. Wie plays the backing tracks over Zoom, allowing students to hear the full score and play along with their own parts.
Although the current arrangement cannot completely substitute the experience of practicing together with other students in a full orchestra or small sections, Paloma So ’23, a fourth form violinist in the Symphony Orchestra, enjoys the online rehearsals. “I would say this new format is much more diverse because we are looking at new repertoires from a performance point of view rather than an academic perspective,” So said.
Mr. Wie has also taken advantage of the new digital format to familiarize himself with Canvas and other learning management softwares.
During future rehearsals, Mr. Wie plans to make notations on scores for different sections and upload them onto Canvas so students are able to review their feedback afterwards.
“Technologies can be very efcient and efective when applied to music ensembles,” Mr. Wie said. “This is something we should have been doing a long time ago, but we didn’t because we teach in a very traditional feld that is highly resistant to new technology.”
After the quarantine period ended on Monday, the majority of students returned to socially-distanced, in-person rehearsals. Mr. Wie placed tripods with mounted IMS camera systems
in diferent sections to ensure students who are learning online will share the same experience as those learning in-person. For example, remote students who play the violin joined the violin Zoom meeting, which is connected to a specifc camera. Through this intricate system of section-specifc cameras and Zoom rooms, students who are learning remotely can interact with other musicians in their section and share the same viewpoint of the conductor as if they were sitting in their usual seats.
“This is something we should have been doing a long time ago, but we didn’t because we teach in a very traditional field that is highly resistant to new technology.”
Mr. Gene Wie Instrumental Ensembles Director
“All the creative methods that online music ensembles are exploring are to guarantee that everyone is involved and participating meaningfully,” said Mr. Wie. “I feel the frustration and disappointment when people who are Zoom-ing in across the globe cannot be heard, and we are trying every possible way to make them feel connected.”
Since students are unable to rehearse altogether, Mr. Wie used this opportunity to explore exceptionally challenging pieces that the orchestra would not normally play, in addition to flm soundtracks and video game theme songs, such as those from Nintendo’s Super Mario games, a silver lining in these challenging times.
By Kate Bailey ’22 Copy Editor
By Angel Guo ’22 Sta Reporter
By Reagan Colton ’24 Reporter
Graphic by Tony Lee/The Choate News
Graphic by Tony Lee/The Choate News
Graphic by Tony Lee/The Choate News
