By Aysha Craig, Copy Editor
// The Acalanes High School Performing Arts Center, once filled with performers on stage and friends and family in the audience, is emptier than ever. Unable to return to school for music purposes, many students partake in concerts virtually.
Several Acalanes musicians performed in the Fall Instrumental Music Concert on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. over Zoom.
Ten students participated in the event by sending pre-recorded videos of themselves performing a piece at home to Acalanes Instrumental Music Director Lauren Gibson. Gibson then compiled all of the videos together in a slideshow presentation.
Two student moderators facilitated the concert by introducing each musician and the title of the piece before playing their video.
“I think having students involved helped make the recital more student-focused rather than normal band class where [Gibson] is in charge of it all,” student moderator and junior Autumn Long said.
As the 70 audience members watched and listened to the performances, they utilized the chat feature on Zoom to give positive feedback to the performers and leave words of encouragement.
“Normally, in person, we cheer and clap for our friends performing, but now, we mainly leave little complimentary notes in the chat to let them know we are watching and enjoying,” junior Riley Daggs said.
Many of the musicians had to take multiple recordings of themselves in order to get a recording that they were satisfied with.
“I get nervous and do worse than I normally do when practicing because I have to keep starting over,” freshman Adelina Zheng said. “I messed up and it took me about ten tries to get a recording that I was happy with.”
Although the concert was different from past years, Gibson acknowledged that it was still a good opportunity for students to perform.
“While almost any musician you ask will tell you that we cannot wait to get back to in-person concerts, this recital created a space for students to perform and share it with our friends and community,” Gibson said.