A R T S S P OT L I G H T : W I N T E R M U S I C A L
Overcoming challenges key to staging Pippin Constraints lead to creativity. Never has this statement been truer than through the process of mounting the winter musical, Pippin, at Madeira this year. Faced with a bevy of safety restrictions, the theater team began brainstorming in September how to stage a show without live music, wearing masks, physically distanced, and without a live audience. CHALLENGE #1: A D D I NG MU S I C W I T H O U T L I VE S I NG I NG O R I NS T RUM E N TS
The first challenge was bringing music into the production
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given singing and playing instruments in person was a non-starter. Technology provided the answer. Seven professional orchestra members assembled over Thanksgiving Break, physically distanced across the stage, and spent a marathon nine hours recording the full show under the direction of Music Director Heather Fetrow. Generously assisted by Director of Instructional Design and Innovation Stacy Tippens and other professional recording artists, a full soundtrack was mixed and ready for the students to begin recording their voices over. The students, still spread out across the country, used BandLab software to individually record their vocal parts in their bedrooms, closets, and bathrooms to get the best quality sound possible. Once every vocal track was laid down, the arduous task of mixing
MADEIRA TODAY SUMMER 2021
Madeira’s very own Pippin soundtrack began.
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