By Lucy Fitz Gibbon.
The necessary Covid restrictions, and the sacrifices we must all make to keep each other safe, have placed onerous burdens on vocal arts in particular. To obviate the possibility of disease transmission, we are only working together virtually—and that makes collaboration, itself the very heart of vocal music, particularly difficult. But despite these limitations, we have been able to create chamber music (often literally from the student’s dorm rooms!) and create a link from 19th-century to 21st-century technologies. With DMA student Cheryl Tan at the keyboard of the Regier-Graf, and everyone else connected via Zoom, we were able to engage in a back-and-forth dialogue about tempi, phrasing, and breath marks, in addition to providing an audio and visual introduction to the instrument itself: differences in construction, in action, in sound. At a time when we can feel so fragmented, 19th-century keyboard technology has provided a novel opportunity for collaboration and exploration, as well as an important glimpse of the breadth and depth of Cornell’s musical offerings.
Tune in on March 8 at 7:30pm to hear Cornell voice students with DMA student Cheryl Tan here: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkc-2tqz8oG9zCmgVA2LpwkFRVcraLosex
