For many people, music is an important part of the holiday season. This is especially true for students in the music programs at Natick High School, for whom the end of the calendar year always brings a celebration of the year’s hard work. 

This year's performances, including the fall musical and the band and choir concerts, are online. This has provided a unique set of challenges. Students and teachers have had to adapt to a new format and learn a new set of skills while dealing with the disappointment of not being able to perform together. But they love music and performance, and have worked hard to put together some amazing pieces! If you are longing for the excitement of watching a musical or have been too busy to attend school concerts in the past, you are in luck this year: you can experience the talents of the music programs from the comfort of your couch.  

Sophomores Isaac Hoffman and Anna Huynh are in the fall musical, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” I interviewed them on Thursday, December 17, the day before opening night. I have done school theatre in the past, and was curious to hear about how a musical can happen virtually. 

I learned that doing a virtual musical meant doing a lot of filming. The larger scenes were filmed during Google Meet rehearsals, but scenes with fewer people had to be filmed individually with pauses for other actors’ lines. Most scenes were filmed inside, but some had to be filmed at a specific outdoor location, like by a tree or in the dark. This was very different and much more independent than an in-person show, where the cast rehearses all together and doesn’t have to record at all. 

Actors felt the difference between interacting with others during rehearsal and not interacting with anyone while filming the actual scenes. Isaac said that recording alone was an interesting exercise in improving their acting skills. 

The show’s crew put in lots of work editing the recordings into a complete musical. They also built mini sets. Each mini set looked like the setting of one of the show’s scenes, and in the live-streamed show, the sets appeared as an introduction to their scene. 

Isaac and Anna both said that one of their favorite aspects of the online format was the reduced number of people in the show. Last year, the cast of the fall musical had around eighty people, but this year, there were only about twenty-five cast members. This meant that people were able to get to know the rest of the cast better. Additionally, everyone got a part. In fact, because the show was formatted into short scenes that had their own story, many actors got to star in a scene.

 For Isaac, Anna, and the other actors, participating in a virtual musical was an interesting and different experience.

The performances of the musical, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” were held on Friday, December 18; Saturday, December 19; and Sunday, December 20. If you missed the performances, but are interested in the show, you can watch the trailer on the Instagram page @natickhightheatre. Stay tuned for more information from NHS Theatre, both this year and in the future.

Winter concerts from the band and choir normally follow the closing of the fall show, and this year was no exception. Concert Band recorded “Fiero” by Steven Hodges, described by Isaac as a dramatic piece that could be in an action scene in a movie. Wind Ensemble has released the winter classic “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. It plans to record a new piece almost every two-week block of classes. 

NHS Choir had a virtual Fall Fest, which included songs from Chamber Singers, West Street Singers, Concert Choir, Musae, Men’s Choir, Scalestorm, Seven’s Not Enough, Retrograde, and The Men’s Room. Fall Fest is normally an in-person event that includes music and games. This year, after the live stream of the performances, choir students were able to enjoy a Fall Fest celebration over Google Meet. Additionally, the full choir program has released a recording of “We Are Not Alone” by The Rescues.  

Students all across the music programs have had to learn new skills in order to produce music virtually. The bands have recorded their music on Soundtrap and GarageBand. Some students had recorded music in the past, but many had to learn how to do things like importing guide tracks, turning off reverb, and even avoiding accidentally deleting people’s recordings (it happens to the best of us). After the individual recordings were done, band director Craig Chisholm spent hours upon hours putting them all together. 

There were technical requirements when making these recordings. For example, recordings had to be done with a metronome or guide track, and everyone had to be locked in with the tempo in order for the piece to sound cohesive. Recording this way, and recording alone, makes musicians and their music feel more exposed. This was scary, but has allowed students to become more confident in their music and in letting others hear it.

Additionally, some instruments had to be recorded at a much greater distance from the microphone than others. This prevented the recording from being too loud, quiet, or distorted. For example, I am a percussionist and was playing mallets for Sleigh Ride. After a very distorted first recording, I played my final take squished into the corner of a room with my computer on the other side, as far away from my instrument as possible. The headphones I was using kept cutting out, as they were almost out of Bluetooth range. 

Needless to say, I am looking forward to the time when I can go back to making music in person, and I am sure I’m not the only one. In the meantime, I’m grateful that the NHS music programs have been able to continue making music. I know that we are lucky to have the resources to do so. 

During quarantine, I was surprised by how happy I became when I heard a new virtual piece from the NHS music programs. When this school year started, I was beyond excited to begin band again. I hope that you take advantage of the virtual music that we have worked so hard on. I guarantee that it will bring a smile to your face. 

"Sleigh Ride" can be found on the YouTube page Natick High School Band. Fall Fest and "We Are Not Alone" can be found on the YouTube page Natick High School Choirs. Virtual pieces by the acapella groups can be found on their Instagram accounts: @scalestorm, @sevensnotenough, @nhsretrograde, and @nhsthemensroom.