Q: What have been the main challenges you have faced post Covid and what advice would you offer other music departments trying to get everything going again?
Students have been reluctant to commit to rehearsals and belonging to a group. There has also been a sense of them not wanting to put themselves 'out there' and perform in front of others. Our groups are now much smaller than they were pre-Covid, and building everything back up is proving to be a very slow process. One piece of advice I would give is to find out what students are interested in, and adapt accordingly. We found out that we had a lot of students interested in musical theatre, so we set up a musical theatre group, which is now one of our most successful activities.
Q: Would you say Covid will have a permanent impact on music education or do you think things will eventually ‘return to normal’?
It's difficult to say whether the reluctance to commit is temporary or permanent. It could be that we are attributing a shift from service and collegiality to individualism (and therefore away from music ensembles) to Covid when actually it is something more deeply societal. Either way, I very much hope that students will come back to reaping the benefit of being involved in something that is bigger than themselves as individuals.
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