Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, public events have been cancelled in order to curb the spread of the virus. This includes the live music events from University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music. However, that isn’t going to stop the school from delivering music.
Utilizing Facebook, the Lionel Hampton School of Music will broadcast highlights from previous concerts, according to Vanessa Sielert, the director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music.
“For all of the concerts we normally had scheduled at 7:30 p.m., we are replacing those with highlights from concerts from the past,” Sielert said.
Two and a half years ago when Sielert became of director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music, they started recording concerts and streaming them over Facebook. This was so anyone who couldn’t make the concerts in person had a way to support the musicians and the college.
“We just thought that we could get out to more people and share what we have going on in the School of Music, because people are going to be looking for things to keep themselves entertained,” Sielert said. “We have a lot of people at a distance, especially parents of students in the School of Music that can’t make it in if they live in Seattle, Portland or Boise.”
The school has two and a half years worth of highlights to choose from. This includes the Swing Into Summer concert, where the day before graduation the Jazz IV Swing Band and the Chamber Jazz Choir put on a show to send off the seniors.
Along with the concert highlights, there will be other videos from those within the Lionel Hampton School of Music. There will be the Student Convocation Series, where students will demonstrate what they’ve learned this year.
Students within the Lionel Hampton School of Music take classes specific to the instruments they play. Normally, they would perform for the whole school, but the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented that. However, the department has found a way to show off their students’ hard work.
“What we’re doing is we’re having students send in recordings of what they are working on at home,” Sielert said. “Those students will submit the recordings of them performing by themselves at home, then we will get together as a faculty and choose some of the highlights of those performances, and we’ll broadcast those pieces together for our last Convocation.”
The Convocation performances will be streamed every Thursday at 2:30 p.m. until the semester is over on the Lionel Hampton School of Music’s Facebook page.
Ryan Hill can be reached at [email protected]