For the past four years, senior Kelsey Hersh has performed with the Tufts University chamber singers ensemble. Hailing from Ojai, Calif., Hersh's parents, unfortunately, have in the past been unable to fly across the country to attend her concerts. This weekend, however, Kelsey's mom, Jaye, tuned into a live webcast to see her daughter perform in Distler Hall.
Over 400 Tufts students this weekend sang in four different concerts that were webcast live as a part of the Tufts Virtual Music Festival. The festival was the result of the combined efforts of the Department of Music, the admissions office, University Relations, University Education Media and other departments.
The festival was deemed a success.
"We're still waiting on the final reports, but we've heard that one concert got about 1,600 hits," Professor Joseph Auner, chair of the Department of Music, said. "I've also already received some very nice notes from parents [who were able to watch their children perform online]."
According to Auner, this weekend was selected for the webcast because four different ensembles were scheduled to perform. In a department with 20 ensembles running the gamut from Renaissance music to gospel choir, this weekend provided "a nice cross-section," Auner said.
Distler Performance Hall in the Granoff Music Center had already been set up to facilitate the recording of performances, so much of the technology for optimal sound recording was already in place.
Stephen Breck from Educational Media spearheaded the camera work for the webcast, backed by a strong technical team.
This weekend's success gave Auner hope that concerts will continue to be webcast in Distler, and that this program could extend to include other departments in the future.
"We're going to see what the response is, then work with the university to expand the program to all other performing arts departments," Auner said.
Ever since the Granoff Music Center opened in 2007, student involvement in the music department has exploded. In just four years the department has gone from being relatively obscure to seeing over 3,000 course enrollments last year, according to Auner.
With new additions like the Virtual Music Festival, Tufts' music department is continuing to assert itself as an advanced and forward-thinking presence on campus.
