This school year has brought the return of many things that had been taken away last year by COVID-19. One of the most exciting things for the music department is the return of live concerts with audiences.

For most of last year, band, choir and orchestra classes had to put on virtual concerts where the group was either videoed performing together or students recorded their parts individually and the videos were combined into one.

“The online concerts were fine, but it wasn’t the same effect as getting the cheers and the claps from everyone,” said Eileen Sheetz, senior band member.

Students and staff agreed that the audience adds a level of excitement to concert night that was missed last year.

“When there’s an audience, you get laughter, you get cheering. It’s really really nice when you can feel people actually enjoying what you are doing instead of silence,” said Ali Bollow, senior choir member.

The music department has also celebrated sharing the music with their families because audiences were not allowed at concerts last year until the spring concerts. Even then, only two people were allowed to watch per student.

“This is what we all signed up to do was to perform for people and to share our gift of music with people,” said Andy Masters, orchestra director. “You can do that with a video but people watch videos all day long and getting that authentic experience of experiencing real live music in real time is a real gift to our students and our families.” 

This year, the number of guests per student is not restricted as long as families are maintaining at least six feet and one empty row between each group.

One big change that will be taking place in the music department soon is how their annual Constellation Concert will run. Normally, band, choir and orchestra students come together and perform one show featuring music from every class and many small groups. There are normally two shows and both are sold out. However, band and choir cannot have concerts longer than 50 minutes so the show must be split into two separate concerts with different groups performing at each concert.

“This year, we are not doing two of the same show so that more people can come to the performance,” said Masters.

Nevertheless, music students are excited to play again, in rehearsals and at concerts.

“We kind of lost last year but I would say that rehearsals and just having fun with classmates and really learning the music and cheering for everyone almost feels like more rewarding than the day of the concert,” said Ryan Reid, senior band member.