On March 26, the ETSU Department of Music live streamed a faculty chamber recital, featuring two guest musicians.

The event hosted by the ETSU Piano Studio and the Appalachian Music Festival included ETSU music faculty Jessica Ryou, David Kováč, Sean Hawthorne, Esther Park, and Yi-Yang Chen. The guest musicians are Mann-Wen Lo, who received her doctorate from the University of Southern California, and Eric Silberger, winner of the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition. The pieces performed included multiple pieces by Antonín Dvořák and Johannes Brahms.

Faculty/Guest Artist Chamber Music Recital flyer, showing Mann-Wen Lo, Eric Silberger, David Kováč, Sean Hawthorne, Esther Park, Jessica Ryou, and Yi-Yang Chen. (Contributed/East Tennessee State University Piano Studio on Facebook)

Lo and Silberger are actually friends with Chen, assistant professor of piano at ETSU and artistic director and founder of Appalachian Music Festival. While reflecting on how the life of a musician has changed so dramatically over the past year due to COVID-19, they planned this chamber recital.

“I was on a friendly phone call,” Chen said. “Just seeing how everyone’s doing, and we were talking about how a lot of concerts were canceled, and the life a musician is so different (now). Y’know what? Lets do a concert!”

The event was planned quickly, with guests Lo and Silberger only arriving Tuesday night, a mere three days before the recital. However, the performance sounded just as masterful and intricate as a performance that took years of work.

“It was just a regular ‘hello’ phone call that turned into this really meaningful concert,” Chen said.

The performance, held in the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts, was livestreamed via the ETSU Department of Music YouTube channel. A full live audience has not been allowed due to COVID-19 guidelines, and even though the music can be heard through the livestream, the acoustics of the new recital halls do not fully travel through the viewer’s speakers or headphones.

 “It is very different, there’s a lot ambience in the concert hall and warmth, very subtle color changes, the ring, when the ensemble fills the hall,” Chen said. ““Some of that doesn’t carry through the microphones on the livestream.”

Despite the obvious disconnect from being in the Martin Center versus watching a livestream, people, especially students not actively performing in the music department, are still getting a glimpse into what is inside the Martin Center.

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