By Kathy Morrison, Director

Sometimes being forced to do something in a new way turns out to be a very good thing.

That is the story of our 2020 Music Festival, a performance event that takes place each April at our school. This year with social distancing forcing many things to be cancelled, our team at Kathy’s Music designed a new plan that would allow this performance to go on.

You’ve  heard us say it before. With so many things being cancelled, we are committed to being the thing that goes on, even if its in a slightly different way.

Typically students would perform in person in one of our studio locations with adjudicators in 3 rooms and people waiting patiently in a 4th room over the course of 4-5 hours.

This year, however, we moved the entire event to a virtual platform, giving us the ability to have 4 and 5 adjudicators at the same time. Much to our delight, this new plan delivered several positive results.

For once, there was no travel time, no wait time at the studio, no rushing to get there on time, no nerves building as you wait, no missed lunch as you go from a sporting event to a music performance, no setup or tear down for the event. Win-win for everyone.

What did we say yes to?

We said yes to more adjudicators than ever before working sometimes 5 at a time.
We said yes to 80 students, up almost 34% over last year’s participation.
We said yes to a faster process for adjudicators to turn in their comments.
We said yes to a faster process for delivering results to students via mail rather than waiting until their next lesson.
We said yes and yes and yes!

With creative thinking and a strong commitment to our students, our team adapted to overcome the challenge of social distancing. We re-invented this performance event with a new process that created the same amazing outcomes with just a little different experience.

How did the process work exactly?

Our students met their adjudicators on Zoom where they performed their 2 selections and received verbal feedback and coaching from their adjudicator.

Following the Music Festival, students received a package containing their personalized certificate, a treat and a personal report from their adjudicator with specific ratings for technique, tone, musicality, and more.

The students LOVED receiving a package in the mail, as well as connecting with an adjudicator in a safe space, like their home. They loved how easy it was to perform with no rushing, no waiting, and no sitting next to strangers until your turn. Parents loved being able to hear their student perform live. Teachers loved receiving the adjudicator’s comments in a timely manner electronically, so they could follow up with students in their next lesson.

We discovered some unexpected benefits. By having a recorded track to practice with, students had more opportunities for rehearsal during the week leading up to the event. In addition, the track provided a consistent target for tempo changes and matching pitch.

More practice time means more support and opportunity for mastery. And the long term benefit? We’re now building a library of accompaniment tracks that are available for any student who works on these selections in the future.

Our goals for Music Festival remain the same. And now we know we can do them just as well if not better virtually.

  • To celebrate a student’s progress,
  • To introduce students to a new mentor,
  • To provide coaching feedback that is both written and verbal,
  • To inspire students towards musical skill mastery,
  • To ignite a love of performing, and
  • To increase self-confidence by working towards and achieving a goal.

We are feeling grateful.

Turns out cognitive flexibility is alive and well on our team. We are glad for the opportunity to use this executive function skill for the benefit of our students.
While the experience was a little different, the impact proved to have a very positive effect.

We are grateful that our families are willing to try something new.
We are grateful for our teachers being willing to flex in order to meet the needs of their students.
We are grateful to be able to provide the same kind of programming and performances in a virtual platform.
We are grateful that music continues to be the thing that connect us and inspires us.