For Lower Moreland Music, The Show Goes On

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the necessary restrictions because of it, the Lower Moreland Band program was unable to conduct any physical rehearsals in the first half of the 2020-21 school year. But, as the well-known saying mandates, the show must go on! And it did. Students, working under Mr. Erin Stroup, were able to put together a spectacular, albeit nontraditional, performance for the holidays. 

Yes, this was no traditional winter concert. For the first time in Lower Moreland Band history, the performance was moved online, housed on a website specially created for the event. A substantial amount of work went into the creation of the site, as well as the mixing of the parts. Well over 80 collective hours of work were put in by members of the band leadership team to complete the task, and nights and weekends were used to make sure that everything was performance-ready. 

In the months of music classes leading up to the winter concert, each student learned and practiced their individual part for several pieces, as they would have done in a normal setting. However, instead of performing these pieces as a collective in one concert, each student recorded their part individually. Then, these parts were combined digitally to create the full ensemble piece. Naturally, this was a very time-consuming process, but the concert band was still able to put together two concert-length pieces, and the wind ensemble, jazz lab, and jazz ensemble each produced one. 

In addition to collective performances by each of the music groups, this year’s concert also featured a unique aspect which allowed each member of the band to shine: all students were required to pick a song of their choice and record a solo performance of it. This resulted in some truly creative performances, with music of all genres being chosen by the students, who expressed themselves through a variety of methods, including costumes and short films.