Winter Recital 2-13-21

Today (Saturday, February 13th, 2021) was the first of our three-weekend 2021 Winter Recital at Knoxville Academy of Music. It was also our first recital in a year, since our summer recital in August 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. In the past, our Winter Recitals were all scheduled for one long day of back-to-back hour-long recitals starting at 10:00 AM and going until about 6:00PM or later. However, in order to facilitate social distancing and keep the crowds down during the era of COVID-19, our recitals this time around are being spread out between three weekends.

Nonetheless, it felt great to see our students performing live again. My students as well as those of three other instructors were on the schedule for today. We took safety very seriously. All in attendance had to wear masks over the mouth and nose – except for the few minutes that vocalists were actively performing. Each pianist was asked to sanitize their hands at the stage-side sanitization station before sitting down to play at the keyboard. The vocal mics were sprayed with disinfectant spray between every performer.

We are very happy to have had the Open Chord host our recitals this trip around. The Open Chord is a popular live music venue and music store here in Knoxville, and they provided the PA system, drums, amplifiers, microphones, and stage lights as well as a sound and lighting engineer. That meant a lot less gear for us to carry back and forth.

Even more exciting this time around, our recital was livestreamed via Facebook Live from the Knoxville Academy of Music Facebook Page.