Campus musicians continue to perform
by Shane Duquette
FPU musicians have been performing on live-streams for audiences to see, even with the stay at home order.
Performances by musicians were impacted by the quarantine. Without public gatherings, performances and concerts have been impossible to do, but that did not stop musicians from still performing.
FPU sophomore Madison Leslie has been performing on her Instagram since quarantine started. Leslie said she had been taking requests by anyone for her to sing during late night streams.
Leslie said, “I do lives with requests and random songs so that everyone can relax and share in the joy of music. This is a very chaotic time, but music can help anxiety or stress.”
The same thoughts come from another FPU student. Junior Peter Borzellino has performed his original music as well as covers on his Facebook page.
Borzellino said, “It’s a way to bring people joy and a level of normalcy. I also find it healthy to do these performances for myself because it’s still a form of practice.”
Ensembles and bands have not been able to get together to practice, but that will not stop them from creating music. Lou Bunk, the head of the music department at FPU, says it has been impossible to rehearse using Zoom. There is a delay and audio quality issue that would not allow everyone to play together.
However, Bunk did find a solution to this problem. His rock ensemble has been doing “virtual performances” where each musician records themselves playing their part on their phone and sends the video and audio to Bunk.
Bunk uses Adobe Premiere to edit all the videos and sound together. This way the musicians can still show their playing abilities, even when they are far apart.
Bunk said, “It is a bit of an underestimate to say all this is challenging. Yet I am hopeful that, when the pandemic is over, we will emerge with a renewed appreciation of our FPU community.”
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Shane Duquette is finishing up his last semester at FPU where he will graduate with a music major, journalism and media production minor, and fine arts minor.
