Finishing a passionate rendition of his original composition, the pianist takes a bow. Then, over the roaring crowd, junior Joshua Koch starts playing again. His second song is much shorter than his first — five or six zippy glissando up the Steinway with a disinfectant wipe.
The evening of Monday, April 19, the music department held its annual recital for Scholarship and Creative Arts Days (SCAD). Held in Leffler Chapel, physical attendance was limited to students and staff within the music program to maintain social distancing. The concert received its largest viewership on YouTube, with 40-odd music lovers attending the stream.
A total of 17 musicians took part in 10 performances, including solo works, duets, a saxophone quartet and five-strong choir.
More than a simple recital, one could view the event as a moment of triumph over COVID — a victory won through the power of music, maybe, but more importantly, through hard work.
Associate professor of music Dr. Justin Badgerow provided accompaniment to three performers, serving as collaborative pianist for flutist Jayden Gibson, alto saxophone player Julie Nitowksi as well as a five-singer choir performing a song from “The Secret Garden.” He confirmed the challenges COVID has posed to the music department as a whole.
He said it took a long time and a lot of medical research for the department to get back to the point where he and his SCAD partners could safely rehearse together in person.
“The pandemic made collaborative playing and playing with your students basically impossible,” Badgerow said.
Classes tried remote practices, but they just did not cut it.
“In Zoom, when you and I are talking, if it’s just a half a second delay it’s really not a problem,” Badgerow explained. “But the reality is the audio is so far behind that if we were to try to make music together it would be a disaster.”
It is simply not feasible, yet.
“Maybe when we get 5G,” the professor lamented.
Devynn Napp-Barker and sophomore Amaris Wolfe performed a duet, “Again,” by a 20-year-old Boston Composter named Arnor Chu. The instruments they played exposed another COVID monkey wrench.
“Marimbas are thousands of dollars,” Wolfe said. “You don’t just have one in your house unless you’re a seasoned percussionist that does this as a career.”
The pair’s performance made this abundantly clear. Before they could play, two stagehands had to wheel away the piano to make room for the two towering xylophone-like giants. Napp-Barker and Wolfe sported four spindly mallets each, so they looked like they had alien fingers and they still had to migrate several paces to reach all their notes. These are sophisticated pieces of equipment only accessible to them through the College — access which was severely limited in the thick of the pandemic.
Koch played his original, award-winning composition.
“I wrote this piece during quarantine on a little, electric piano,” Koch said. He also said he came up with its name, “A Journey Above the Clouds,” when reflecting on that experience. And who can blame someone for thoughts of rising up above the pandemic?
Yet, with the success of this year’s SCAD, Dean of the School of Arts & Humanities and associate professor of music education Dr. Kevin Shorner-Johnson believes Elizabethtown College has done just that.
“I think Etown students, regardless of major, have been thrust into a situation that has pushed all of us to our limits,” Shorner-Johnson said. “To see students excelling at work that goes above and beyond, even in this year, is remarkable.”Shorner-Johnson thanked several department members for their contributions to the recital, including Badgerow; music professors, Dr. Douglas Bomberger and Dr. Anne Gross and Director of Instrumental Studies, Dr. J. Robert Spence.
