News From Britt Hill – March 2021

When our state shut down in late March of last year, all in-person Residency classroom visits, BrittKids Koncerts, and Britt Festival Orchestra Fellowships were cancelled. To try to replace these live programs, we created several video series: BrittVids, BrittKids Koncert Video Series, Britt Bridge Series, and Scout’s Sing-a-long Songs. BrittVids featured past education artists and members of our Britt Festival Orchestra sharing a single piece of music and were posted on social media twice weekly from April through June.

BrittKids Koncerts were presented as a video series in July and August, and included past Koncert artists as well as new artists. Koncert videos included musical performances with storytelling, commissioned illustrations, and storytelling with forest ecosystem education.

The new Britt Bridge Series that began last fall is focused on providing music teachers and homeschooling parents with the tools to continue their music education efforts in a virtual classroom setting. In partnership with music teachers, we created a fall series on folk instruments with accomplished local folk musicians, and a 2021 winter/spring series that features orchestra and band instruments with professional musicians and members of our Britt Festival Orchestra. These videos include lectures on history, technique, literature, musicianship, and demonstrations of the instruments and techniques. Teachers and parents have been very grateful for this content and students are enthusiastic, too.

The following comments from the students are reassuring because it appears that we are doing something right and making a difference even under the most challenging of circumstances.

“I think my favorite was today’s video about common instruments that are easy to play. It never connected to me that they were small instruments that travelers could carry around and play anytime. I also thought it was interesting that you can make a kazoo with a comb and wax paper. It really shows how simple the actual instrument is.”

“I really liked the banjo video; I found it to be a quite interesting instrument, and a great symbol of American music. I also am interested in how it fell from its once lofty place in popular music, seemingly replaced by guitars and synthesizers. I didn’t know that there were so many instruments that were easy to learn; I would certainly like to see how people from around the world fit them into their cultures and lives.”

“My favorite one so far has been the Bagpipes one. I’ve always thought Scotland would be a cool place to visit and I always thought you had to blow into the bagpipe to play it. But instead you have to push it to get the air in the right areas.”

We also started a monthly series especially for members of our free BrittKids Klub—”Scout’s Sing-a-long Songs.” Members of the BrittKids Klub receive a monthly newsletter with a link to a new Sing-a-long video. These videos come with sheet music and lyrics that can be downloaded for free, making it easy for kids to learn classic children’s songs.

We are proud of our Education Director, Kay Hilton, and the work she has done to ensure our continued outreach during this unusual time. We are still going strong, sharing music education virtually and will continue to do so until we can safely connect our students and artists in-person once again.

And the beat goes on…