There’s a powerful sense of camaraderie that runs through the NAHS music program like some enchanted river, pooling behind the walls of its sectioned off art-wing corridor. This kinship is most strongly displayed in events such as the annual coffeehouse or their numerous journeys to far-away competitions. But now that Covid has severed the links many of us have with one another, how has a program so dependent on connectivity been able to adjust?
As is the trend, the music program has transitioned to the virtual realm in order to thrive. Students have had to not only learn new music within the solitude of their rooms but also take extra steps in terms of online correspondence in order to truly perfect it. Once this was completed, the sound and tech crew stepped in with its expertise.
The plethora of different sounds and voices they had stored, had to in some way be put together to create a final product, up to their standard of perfection. To do this, editing software such as digital audio workstation (DAW) was used to mesh the voices together and fine-tune them to account for any discrepancies within the final product. According to Edward Nachamie of the sound/tech crew, the hardest part of this whole process was editing “...together a huge amount of voices into a final polished product.”
With that dealt with, the next thing at hand is the question of how annual events such as coffeehouse and concerts are going to be held. Depending on how things go in terms of Covid, they plan to attempt to hold a socially distanced coffeehouse later this spring or summer and a virtual concert is scheduled to release later this month. Like most clubs and activities at our school, things are being dealt with day by day and are ruminated over thoughtfully for not only the continuation of the program but the safety of everyone involved.