By Zach Mosca
The Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University hosted its first in-person concert since the start of the pandemic on Walnut Street near Bliss Hall last Sunday.
The performance was directed by Dana School of Music professor Misook Yun and featured a variety of students performing various vocal pieces. Yun said she is excited to be able to have her students perform in person again.
“It was so good to see my students performing live. It was so good to see my students in person. We had dress rehearsal on Thursday, so it was so good to see them and hear them live,” Yun said.
While Yun and the rest of Dana staff were able to get used to online teaching and performances, Yun said the feeling of seeing her students perform live can never be replaced by a virtual recital.
“We tried to make [the] best out of the situation, so we all got used to teaching and learning through Zoom … but still — the live instruction — you cannot replace it,” Yun said.
Yun is not the only one who was excited to be back in person again. Lauren Faber is a second-year graduate student majoring in vocal performance. Faber said she is also excited to be back, and this performance was invigorating for her.
“Obviously with a live stream performance, there’s no one sitting there, it’s just the camera. So you’re not getting any feedback, you’re not getting any applause, you don’t really have that energy to bounce off of. But today everyone could be clapping and laughing along with different things, so it was nice to be able to share that energy and bounce it off of the audience,” Faber said.
For other students, like freshman vocal music education major Alexa Mosca, this was their first in-person performance since starting at the Dana School of Music. For her, this performance was nerve-racking, but she was satisfied afterward.
“It’s definitely different going from recording all of your performances to singing live for the first time. It’s very different, but it’s a great experience,” Mosca said.
Mosca went on to say the biggest difference between doing a virtual recital compared to an in-person one is the inability to perform multiple times over during a live performance.
“When we record, you can take as many takes as you need. It can take an hour — I mean I usually take more than I should. Whereas in person, it’s live, so you get that one performance,” Mosca said.
When looking at the future of live performances for the school, Yun said she’s become more experimental and creative during the pandemic. She also plans to experiment with the school’s live performances.
“Under the normal circumstances, I would never have thought about using somebody’s kitchen to record or using puppets, but we are creating lots of opportunities, so why not combine those things for an actual performance?” Yun said.
YSU students can check out Dana School of Music’s website for updates on upcoming events.
