Brass, winds, and voices complete the Music Department

After much anticipation, Campion has welcomed back its select choir, Koinonia, and Orchestra as part of the music program. While bells and strings were still offered for the first semester, students are eager for the opportunity to join different ensembles.

“When I heard the orchestra was re-launching, I was actually pretty excited for it,” commented Noah Sturges, junior. “Even though we don’t have percussion or as many people, it still gives me nostalgia, especially because we are playing music from previous years.”

Koinonia and orchestra auditions were held in February and the classes will be held in-person for the duration of the fourth quarter. In order to maintain social distance in the rehearsal spaces, there are fewer students in each class: only 12 in Koinonia, making it more challenging to get accepted. In addition, Koinonia members wear specially designed masks for singing and in Orchestra, the wind and brass instruments use bell covers. 

Melissa Clouzet, director of Koinonia, shared, “We are having to modify how we hear and what we do as singers in order to compensate for the masks we now wear, in addition to the spacing that we have to abide by. It will challenge us, but I believe it will be good for us in the long run to help us to both be more independent and build trust between each other.”
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Music Program Director, Yves Clouzet and Melissa Clouzet and persevered in searching for a safe way to bring back the complete music program. 
“It is our job to try to offer the best possible music education opportunities for our students,” elaborated Melissa Clouzet, noting that they began researching safety procedures to conduct ensembles during the pandemic last spring. 

“As time went on, more and more findings about how to sing and play safely became available. I knew at some point the evidence from the research and examples of how other institutions were applying the research would be convincing enough to allow us to get back to singing and playing, which is such a crucial part of our student life and academic curriculum,” she concluded. 

Haley Enochs, Student News Team

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