Newsletter July 2020
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In our May 2020 newsletter we shared with you our first two Music in a Time of Distance projects: Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, 2nd movement, and the Largo from Dvorak’s 9th Symphony. We have been busy since then working on new projects to share with our fans everywhere through our social media platforms.
Over the July 4th weekend, we celebrated the birth of our nation with a socially distant performance of John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever!
As with previous projects, each musician recorded their respective part with their cell phone or other video recording device, aided by a click track, created by Conrad Jones (Principal trumpet) and James Norman (Principal librarian). The two were joined by Bennett Crantford (double bass) and Mike Muszynski (second bassoon) who created the final visual presentation.
If you are interested in more about how these videos are created, make sure you keep up with our YouTube page, as we are working on some behind-the-scenes footage that will really give some detail about how the process works.
Our double bass section also created their own Music in a Time of Distance project, performing an arrangement of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus as a tribute to Christel DeHaan, a generous philanthropist and supporter of many arts institutions in Indianapolis, including the ISO.
Ju-Fang Liu (Principal bass) created a click track for this recording but also played a piano reduction to help each bassist line up their own part with the click. Ju-Fang was joined by Bob Goodlett (Assistant Principal bass), as well as section bassists Bennett Crantford, Greg Dugan, Peter Hansen, Brian Smith, and Bert Witzel (Bennett once again put the video and audio together).
Many of us look forward to the Indy Pride parade and festival each June. Unfortunately, this year’s in-person festivities were canceled, and the celebration was moved online due to COVID-19. So we submitted our third Music in a Time of Distance video for inclusion in Indy Pride online, performing the beloved classic Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.
Individually, Rachel Ko (Assistant principal cello) has also been busy making amazing performance videos for her YouTube channel, where she performs as CelloKoko (sometimes even with her “twin sister“). Check out Rachel’s beautiful cello playing and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
As always, please check in regularly and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for new content. We also have many past videos of individual performances on these platforms, as well as all of our Music in a Time of Distance series. We’re grateful for this opportunity to continue performing for you!