Tag: Wilma Theater

No. 16 • 2020-09-02

Subscribe to Newsletter

Back to School

How is it September already? Many of us are scrambling to get ready for another most unusual school year. For me, that will involve teaching online (again). I do miss teaching in the classroom, much like I miss singing together with other people. I’ve also seen many professors, teachers, and students struggle with online classes, particularly last spring when there was little time to prepare. It’s actually quite similar to musicians attempting online collaboration for the first time. But we all get better at it, and as with virtual music ensembles, I’ve also witnessed enormous creativity in methods of teaching and engaging students online, towards a different, but not lesser, learning experience.

I firmly believe remote learning offers unique opportunities for creative instruction and learning. The first mistake many made, especially in the quick transition last spring, was to try to simply replicate the in-person experience. Online learning is different, fundamentally, just like a TV show is different from a performance staged in a theater. We must embrace those differences and adapt to incorporate the best features of the medium (see local efforts by Opera Philadelphia, the Wilma Theater, and others to produce new digital content).

I find it helpful to lean into the differences between in-person and remote instruction to identify the elements that that can be enhanced through online instruction. Here are some thoughts:

  • Different kinds of student engagement: Some aren’t comfortable speaking in class, but are happy to engage in text questions / conversations. We can also use messaging to keep conversations going outside of the class period.
  • Authoring new media: Rethinking textbooks and slides is long overdue. Experiment with new learning media, like U. Penn Prof. Robert Ghrist’s video textbook for calculus (above image).
  • Alternate modes of sharing and communicating: Online, we can easily share writing, documents, media, sketches, and code. These are the tools of the modern workplace, and we should embrace them for our students.
  • Special guest presenters: Speakers I couldn’t normally bring to campus (distance, cost, etc.), I can invite for remote presentations.

Ultimately, I believe remote teaching (and learning) makes us better instructors and students, whether in person or online. Most are past the angst. Let’s focus on the opportunities to make our classes this year into truly engaging and creative learning experiences. 

Visit Prof. Ghrist’s website for his amazing Calculus Blue project materials. More on the philosophy behind this work in this Twitter thread.

(Socially) Distant Creations

  • 2020 Grand Finale Concert [Vox Virtual Online A Cappella Festival] A fantastic virtual concert featuring 10 international ensembles!
  • Philadelphia Fringe Festival 2020 [Fringe Arts] Fringe is going all virtual this year (Sept. 10-Oct. 4).   It’s an incredible lineup of events, exhibits, and more!
  • #RedAlertRestart [WeMakeEvents] I still miss live events. This is an advocacy campaign led by We Make Events to support relief for the live events sector, which lit up venues in red on Sept. 1. See also Save Our Stages.
  • B.PHL 2020 Innovation Festival [B.PHL] The second B.PHL Festival is all virtual with some amazing speakers and registration is absolutely free! (Sept. 15-17, more below.)

What I’m creating

Creative Conversations for a Changing World
Save the date: Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 4pm
Jessica Zweig (Play On Philly) and I are co-moderating a virtual panel discussion with David Devan (Opera Philadelphia), Valerie Gay (Barnes Foundation), and Melissa Talley-Palmer (Bartol Foundation) on innovating in arts and education through the pandemic. Registration is free!

No. 15 • 2020-08-26

Subscribe to Newsletter

Virtual Chorister

Followers of this newsletter know of my fondness for virtual choir projects. Since the start of the pandemic, choirs and vocal ensembles, in particular, haven’t been able to sing together. As a singer, I really miss it. Unfortunately, it’s likely we won’t be able to gather safely for some time, and some organizations and schools have cancelled the entire year/season of rehearsals and performances.

Virtual choirs aren’t a substitute for live singing in ensemble, but they offer a different way to collaborate and contribute to something musical. As I’ve written previously, the format opens up new possibilities that can’t be realized in person. Sing in ensemble with a famous professional group. Collaborate with musicians on the other side of the globe. A choir of more than 17000 singers. Or, in the case of schools and youth choirs, just continue to sing and learn.

To be clear: virtual choir projects are not accomplished via Zoom or videoconferencing. Those systems have too much delay to make musical collaboration possible, and there are many hilarious examples to prove that. Instead, each singer records their own part separately, and these videos are then mixed together (by someone with some video editing experience and a lot of patience) into the final “performance” shared via YouTube, Instagram, etc. Earlier this summer, I presented an online workshop introducing the full virtual chorus process for music educators, as part of the Apple Distinguished Educators Festival of Learning. It’s not for the faint of heart.

The technology makes it possible, but it doesn’t make it easy, even just to participate as a chorister. It takes a bit of technical know-how to contribute to a project (certainly more than just showing up to rehearsal).

The process generally requires 2 devices: one to view a reference/conductor video (so that you sing in sync with everyone else) and another (usually your phone) to record your own performance. The need for 2 devices (and skill to use both in tandem) poses a barrier to participation for some.

Today, I’m releasing a new iOS app, Virtual Chorister, which attempts to make it easier by combining everything on a single device (an iPhone or iPad). The app enables you to watch & follow a reference video while you record your own singing. You don’t need to juggle the tech across multiple devices. The video is saved to your Photo Library, which you then share/upload in whatever way is designated by the project.

In particular, I’m hopeful this will help schools and youth choirs continue to sing and create this Fall. So, it is a free app. If you do use it for a project, I’d appreciate a shout out and an email to let me know about your project (and maybe get highlighted in this newsletter!). If you wish to contribute something to help continue development, there is an option to do so within the app.

And if you’re looking for a way to participate, here are a few virtual choir projects:

It’s not a substitute for actually singing together… nothing is. But maybe, such projects can keep us going until we can gather together and sing to our hearts’ content. I hope this app enables others to begin (or continue) creating at a distance.

Happy singing!

Download Virtual Chorister (for iPhone and iPad) via the App Store.

(Socially) Distant Creations

  • Words [London Youth Chamber Choir] Collaborative music video of an a cappella classic (originally performed by The Real Group). Nice video production (not Zoom rectangles)!
  • How a hidden Center City block became a pop-up concert hall [WHYY News] You just can’t stop the music!
  • Ubi Caritas [Kings Return, composed by Ola Gjeilo] This went viral a few weeks ago, but definitely worth another listen even if you’ve seen it. Just four guys who sing in stairwells… beautifully.
  • An Artful Pivot [The Indicator from Planet Money, NPR] A radio profile of how the Wilma Theater transitioned Is God Is from the stage to a radio play in response to the pandemic (special appearance by friend of ExCITe, Sunil Iyengar of the NEA).
  • Digital Festival O [Opera Philadelphia] It’s your last chance to stream 3 groundbreaking Philadelphia operatic premieres (ends Aug. 31)

What I’m creating

What, a brand new app isn’t enough for you?

OK, here’s a website I made, all about battling with remote-controlled LEGO robots. In truth, I published the site a year ago, but my son and I are still having fun with our LEGO robot battles!

We were inspired by one of our favorite TV shows, BattleBots. Season 5 was postponed due to COVID, but it’s coming back this Fall!

No. 9 • 2020-07-01

Subscribe to Newsletter

Hamilton! (what else?)

If you’ve been following this newsletter for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of Hamilton. This is a big week for all fans, with the filmed performance of the Original Broadway Cast premiering on the Disney+ streaming service this Friday. Just you wait… just you wait!

Why has this show been able to transcend musical theater, attaining cultural prominence even beyond past Broadway megahits (Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, etc.)? Maybe it’s the mashup of styles (hip hop, Brit pop, classic theater torch songs)? Or perhaps the unique reframing of the American Revolution as it relates to our current struggles of immigration, racism, bigotry, and equality? The inspired casting of people of color in the leading roles of our country’s founding fathers and mothers? Or just the story of the ultimate innovation-powered startup: the United States of America? Of course, it’s all of these elements and more.

An additional component relatively new to the arts world is the creative team’s avid use of Twitter (in particular, composer, librettist, and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda) to engage with the show’s ever-growing legion of fans. Not only does this open a window into the creative process and humanize the creators, it’s another avenue to connect the show to the current world and raise awareness and advocate on behalf of issues. It’s hard to imagine Stephen Sondheim or Andrew Lloyd Webber engaging with the public in such a manner, to explain a lyric or the research behind an historical moment!

Another unique innovation is the Hamilton Education Program(EduHam), an opportunity for students from Title I high schools to see the show (for just $10, “a Hamilton”) andcreate their own raps and performances that they share onstage (!) before they watch the musical. It’s an incredible way of broadening students’ exploration and understanding of American history and its relevance to our very modern challenges. With performances on hold for the COVID-19 outbreak, they recently launched EduHam at Home, a virtual version of the program.

The original plan was to release the film in theaters in 2021, but since live productions aren’t currently running, they made a bold (I think) decision to release the film early on the new Disney+ streaming platform. Cynics will say it’s just a way to make money during the shutdown, but it would have been much easier to wait and release the film in movie theaters to maximize profits (the traditional route of theater > pay per view > streaming). I credit Disney for trying something different to meet this moment.

On top of all this, the original cast just put out a new socially-distanced collaboration with The Roots, playing household instruments. It’s not only a fantastic performance of the show’s hit song “Helpless”, but pushes beyond the standard Zoom grid-style performances that we’ve become accustomed to. Even in isolation, Hamilton continues to innovate.

This is what we should aspire to: a synthesis of creativity, technology, inclusivity, virtuosity, emotion, and profound storytelling that integrates authentic learning. And despite this darkest of years, it helps me remain hopeful and excited for this Independence Day.

(Socially) Distant Creations

  • Thoughts on Racial Injustice Part III [via LinkedIn Live] A lunch conversation (today at 12pm!) with renowned designers John Maeda and Raja Schaar (Drexel Product Design Program Director and IDSA board member).
  • CO VID-88 [Ted Arthur and friends, via Facebook] A beautiful collaborative composition with 20 pianists, with each composing a short segment to add to the end of the video.
  • Lawrence Brownlee discusses race and opera [ABC News] The renowned operatic tenor (and artistic advisor to Opera Philadelphia) highlights the lack of diversity among artistic administrators. Also don’t miss The Sitdown with LB, his show on Facebook Live.
  • Code Blue [Wilma Theater] A new 13-minute digital work shot with the actors’ iPhones. According to director Blanka Ziska, the Wilma’s Artistic Director, the piece is “looking at our current moment of crisis that has been exacerbated by two kinds of viruses: COVID-19 and racism.”
  • C-U Sings Vol. 1: Let It Be [via YouTube] More than 50 musicians in my hometown of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois came together to produce this collaborative version of this Beatles’ classic as a fundraiser for local healthcare services.
  • MKBHD interviews Apple’s Craig Federighi [via YouTube] Preeminent YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee remotely interviews Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering about the company’s recent announcements at this year’s (virtual) Worldwide Developers Conference.

What I’m creating

Wait For It… here’s a work (very much) in progress that I’ll post without further comment.

No. 6 • 2020-06-10

Subscribe to Newsletter

Watch Reflections on the Color of My Skin, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, renowned Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium, or read his essay.

#ShutDownSTEM / #ShutDownAcademia and #TheShowMustBePaused (Blackout Tuesday)

I have built my professional career on the many positive connections between the Arts and STEM (science, tech, engineering, math). But another link between the two is a blindness to systemic inequities and exclusionary practices. Ironically, both areas also proclaim (embarrassingly loudly, at times) to be about progress and the future. But any tradition built almost entirely on white privilege will, by default, propagate its founding structures. In order to change, we must actively pursue a different course and resist defaulting to the cultural norms of each discipline, tacitly approving institutionalized racism.

The tech industry is rightly receiving enormous criticism right now because of the gross underrepresentation of Black and Latinx people among employees and leadership and the incredible hypocrisy of idolizing a “meritocratic” culture while accumulating enormous financial gains for an increasingly smaller and less diverse group of people. I’m fairly certain no tech founder goes into entrepreneurship with the goal of promoting discrimination… They want to solve problems and build successful businesses, and week to hire the “best” people to achieve those goals. But let’s stop kidding ourselves: It’s not a meritocracy. The tech centers and the college campuses that business and hiring networks draw from are themselves highly exclusionary.

Ah, college campuses. Having been part of higher education nearly all my adult life, I will say that we get an ‘F’ in advancing equity and inclusion. Academics, particularly in STEM, love to use the “rationality” of science and engineering to blind us to the actual discrimination that we are complicit in. Representation, particularly in the high growth fields, like computing, is no better (in some ways, ven worse) than 15-20 years ago.

Again, I don’t believe that’s intentional, but an outcome of an academic culture that is slow to change and where so many perversely believe themselves to be adhering to purely “meritocratic” ideals. Academic rigor, peer review, mountains of prerequisite knowledge, and accreditation “requirements”, are just forms of hazing that disproportionately exclude those from non-white, non-male backgrounds.

In the arts, recall that symphony orchestras employed very few women until they moved to blind auditions (literally, musicians would audition behind a screen) and still employ very few Black and Latinx musicians. It’s still “news” when a lead instrumentalist, opera singer, or ballet dancer is Black. It reminds me of when there were “serious” discussions of whether a Black quarterback could succeed in the NFL, which now seem ridiculous. There are still many many issues with the NFL (mostly having to do with an incredibly exclusive group of uber-wealthy owners), but as a society we’ve moved passed that one. (Unless you start a serious, thoughtful protest movement, in which case you’ll never work in football again.) Still a long ways to go.

Both the Arts and STEM ought to be better aligned with popular culture. While the music industry is far from equitable, Hip Hop has become the predominant popular genre. The film industry is terrible, but #OscarsSoWhite is having an impact. People, not a self-selected exclusionary group, should be the drivers of knowledge, culture, and expression. The Arts and STEM should skate to where the puck is going, and embrace a much more inclusive future.

As with last week’s #TheShowMustBePaused (Black Tuesday), I fully support #ShutDownSTEM and #ShutDownAcademia, and this will be my only post today. This is a day for all institutions to take an honest look at themselves and their practices. A day for each of us to look in the mirror to ask “Have I done all that I can”? A day for us to commit to being on right side of history. I’ll see you tomorrow.

(Socially) Distant Creations

  • Reflecting on the Color of My Skin[MKBHD] Superstar tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, inspired by Neil deGrasse Tyson’s essay, shares his thoughts on being a black man in technology (and ultimate frisbee). Also check out his many links to black creators in the video notes.
  • #BlackInTheIvory[Twitter] A hashtag where Black colleagues share their experiences in academia’s “Ivory Tower”. See also a story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
  • Kill Move Paradise[Wilma Theater] Stream local playwright James Ijames’ 2018 work from June 8 to 21. The play is Inspired by the ever growing list of slain unarmed Black people by police in America. Viewers are asked to donate any amount of money they can to Black Lives Matter Philly.
  • A thread on why change is hard in academia[Daniela Witten] Twitter thread about the difficulties of moving beyond racist figures and traditions in higher education by Daniela Witten, Dorothy Gilford Endowed Chair & Professor of Statistics and Biostatistics.
  • BTS Fans Say They’ve Raised $1 Million for Black Lives Matter Groups[NYTimes] Fans of mega-popular K-Pop group BTS have directed tremendous support and attention towards #BlackLivesMatter.
  • “Share Love, Strength & One Core”[World Cafe Live and Mighty Writers] A new songs collaboration between Mighty Writers youth poets and World Cafe Live teaching artist Ami Yares, inspired by this unprecedented spring of 2020 and the theme of “Community.”

What I’m creating

In support of #ShutDownSTEM and #ShutDownAcademia, I’m not posting any new creations today. I’ll be back with lots of new stuff next week!