On April 8, the ETSU Music Department hosted their weekly Recital Hour. This recital featured four musicians, each who specialized in a unique area of music. The students involved were Sarah Queener (vocalist), Skyler Hobgood (marimba), Taylor Van Ryckeghem (piano) and Diego Nuñez (violin).
ETSU’s Department of Music has been providing online streams of their Recital Hours every Thursday at 12:45 p.m. These recitals offer music students to showcase their talents and abilities to not only faculty, peers and other students, but to online viewers as well. As the ETSU main campus has remained mostly online throughout the semester, the music department has found ways for performance grades to continue, including performances to online audiences.
“When I first performed in a student recital this year, I was almost extra nervous,” ETSU cello student Shelia Mayne said. They said ‘You know, you can’t see an audience you’ll be fine”, but that just made it worse because I knew my audience was over a hundred people!” Shelia Mayne, a Cello student at ETSU, said.
Although their audience is online, the students involved still put their all into these recital hours. Performing is a huge part of musician’s job, and with COVID-19, it was difficult for them to do so for a long time. The Recital Hours offer students a chance to perform again safely. In each recital, the musicians can showcase their passion in each piece of music sung or played through speakers and a screen.
“Performing didn’t really feel that much different to me personally,” Mayne said. “I think the hardest part wasn’t so much the COVID situation, but performing in front of people again.”
To watch a recording of the April 8 Recital Hour or to watch other past or future recitals, visit the ETSU Department of Music YouTube Channel.
