Moving Online — Summer Festival Edition *Re-post*
In March 2020, COVID-19 became a stark reality in the United States. I had just gotten home from a work trip to Washington D.C. involving engagement with hundreds of people, performances, shared meals, and group work sessions. How confusing, disorienting, and frightening to come home to an almost immediate stay-at-home order. In addition to the implications on the field and my own performing and teaching schedules, I was deep into planning for the upcoming summer’s Sphinx Performance Academy—a full-scholarship summer solo and chamber music intensive for Black and Latinx students in partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Juilliard School—and was faced with the difficult decision to postpone, cancel, or move online.
I felt strongly that cancelling was not an option, as summer intensives are so crucial for student focus, learning, and development. In addition, our 84 accepted students had worked hard through the application and audition process and deserved our continued commitment. With postponing being logistically complicated (and unlikely to come to fruition), I advocated for moving online. With the support of Sphinx’s President and Artistic Director, Curtis, CIM, and Juilliard, I was immensely grateful for the opportunity to move forward by reimagining the programs for an entirely online space. We tackled this transition with a values-driven approach to maintain the core identity of the intensives while being creative and flexible to allow participants to connect and collaborate in new and innovative ways. Here are some of the values that guided reimagining the program and some key take-aways:
Provide an intensive training environment that allows students to focus, learn, and stretch.
One of the best parts of summer festivals is the opportunity to be transported away from everyday life and into an intensely musical environment. How would this work when students were participating from home?
Students participated in private lessons, studio classes, masterclasses, and an array of enrichment classes over Zoom. Staff checked in daily with students to check on their practicing and progress and to help them minimize distractions based on their unique circumstances.
Students also had an opportunity to work remotely with collaborative pianists with access to personalized, pre-recorded piano parts for their repertoire. (This took a lot of work, organizing, and trial-and-error to get right.)
Balancing intensity of instruction with appropriate limits on screen-time posed a unique challenge. We worked breaks into the daily schedule and encouraged students to take time away from their devices and go outside if possible.
Create an actively supportive environment with a focus on inclusion, belonging, and individualized support that allows all students to flourish in an intensive festival setting.
A core value of the Sphinx Performance Academy is a commitment to an inclusive, respectful, and supportive community. This includes conversations around identity and belonging in classical music. Despite the online setting and many students having never met in person, students were open to placing their trust in one another and sharing their thoughts and experiences. I was inspired to see how much students supported and uplifted each other through this process and their collective sense of optimism despite pain and challenge.
Another surprising element of the summer was how much students bonded. We had planned online social activities such as show-and-tell, talent shows, trivia, etc. but could not have expected that students would become as close as they did. We were thrilled when students reported that they almost felt as if they were together in person!
Engage excellent faculty and guest artists.
One silver lining to being online was that it opened a new set of possibilities for guest artists and teachers.
Students were fortunate to participate in performance masterclasses with so many INCREDIBLE artists and teachers! Ida Kavafian, Ilya Kaler, and Areta Zhulla (violin); Roberto Diaz, Stanley Konopka, and Hsin-Yun Huang (viola); Peter Wiley, Astrid Schween, and Richard Weiss (cello); and Joseph Conyers (bass). In addition, students learned about Movement and Mindfulness with Intermission Sessions, the importance of values and giving back with Joseph Conyers, how to form better practice habits and routines, with Dr. Molly Gebrian, performance psychology with Dr. Noa Kageyama, stage presence with Dawn Saito... Amazing and inspiring for all!
Our guests were extremely gracious and took time to answer student questions. One of my favorite moments was a student’s question posed to Astrid Schween: “One a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your own playing?” Not skipping a beat (what a question!), Astrid talked about how as musicians, we are always aspiring to elevate our playing and as we achieve more, we open up to more possibilities to grow and improve.
Maintain performance opportunities for students that mimicked the “pressures” of live performance.
One of the most debated topics of the summer was how to handle performances for masterclasses and recitals. Have students pre-record (to ensure sound quality) or perform live (experience the nerves of a “live” performance but risk sound quality and internet issues). I do not think there is a right answer, but here is how we handled it. (Again, by a values-driven approach.)
At this stage in development (and with performance opportunities dwindling due to COVID), we felt it was important for students to perform “live.” (With a back-up plan, of course.) Students recorded and submitted their piece in advance, and it was shared with staff and masterclass artists as applicable. For masterclasses, this allowed guest artists to get a sense of the student’s playing with the best possible sound quality. For the class or recital, students would perform “live” over Zoom for the experience and pressures of getting up to play but we had a backup recording that could be shared/streamed if there were any significant sound or internet issues. Student performances were open to students, families, and friends, so we were not dealing with public performances.
For the final concert, students were to introduce themselves and their piece. We also had faculty introduce each student to share words about their character, work ethic, musical progress, etc. This was really special and gave the students an added personal touch in the midst of many online recitals.
An unexpected and delightful aspect to hosting Zoom recitals was enthusiastic use of the chat function. (Ask any educator about a Zoom room full of students and the chat function and cue immediate anxiety… But, our students surprised us in the best way possible!) Echoing the importance of staying focused/paying attention (See 1. above) and creating a supportive environment (See 2. above), students chatted away with applause and heart emojis, “Nice job!,” words of encouragement, specific comments (“Great vibrato!” “I love your beautiful tone!” “Nice spiccato!”), etc. There could not have been a better way to wrap up the final recital!
Evolve and innovate with the times!
Moving festivals online provided opportunities to develop new skills.
For students, this meant managing a schedule of Zoom meetings and passwords, working, across time zones, being proactive about communication (they could not just come find us down the hall…), improving their self-recording skills, etc.
We also created an opportunity for students to create a remote recording project. This allowed students to develop listening/studio/recording skills and have a memory of this very unique summer!
Despite the many challenges of this summer, we had an amazing time with our students, and from what they have shared, students had a transformational experience as well. To hear more from students and faculty about their online summer experience, check out this article in the Juilliard Journal.