{"id":2456749,"date":"2020-04-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323747"},"modified":"2020-04-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T06:00:00","slug":"how-the-aspen-music-festival-after-school-programs-went-virtual-after-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/how-the-aspen-music-festival-after-school-programs-went-virtual-after-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Aspen Music Festival after-school programs went virtual after coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/amfs-atd-040320-2-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/amfs-atd-040320-2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/amfs-atd-040320-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/amfs-atd-040320-2-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/amfs-atd-040320-2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/amfs-atd-040320-2-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Basalt Elementary School 3rd-grader Lela Wiltgen in a Zoom cello private lesson with teacher Roberto Arundale.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">School buses from two school districts had been scheduled, a stack of pizza ordered, and five months of singing rehearsals had been logged before the scheduled spring concert by the Maroon Bel Canto Choir at Harris Concert Hall. But on March 10, the night before the big annual performance for young Roaring Fork Valley singers, the event was called off due to public health concerns about spreading the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It quickly became clear that the choir and the array of the Aspen Music Festival and School\u2019s local after-school education programs wouldn\u2019t be able to safely continue their weekly one-on-one lessons and group sessions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe were all in a bit of a funk,\u201d recalled Katie Hone Wiltgen, the Music Festival\u2019s director of education and community programming. \u201cIt was a down time as we realized these classes were not going to happen for the next few weeks and \u2014 as we now know \u2014 long beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">So Wiltgen and her team got to work and built from scratch a plan to continue virtual musical instruction with 34 teachers for the more than 200 local students enrolled in AfterWorks programs. They launched Monday.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Across a patchwork of Zoom, FaceTime, YouTube and Skype, it includes one-on-one lessons and ensemble practice for young people in Afterworks\u2019 Beginning Strings, Lead Guitar and Maroon Bel Canto Choirs programs, keeping kids on track in their progress on violin, viola, cello, classical guitar and voice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAs soon as we found out we weren\u2019t going to be able to be in-classroom together, we needed to figure out what these communities wanted and needed in these uncertain times,\u201d Wiltgen said of the beginning of the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It was evident that parents wanted to continue the programs virtually, for the sake of continuity in kids\u2019 routine and keeping kids\u2019 occupied during this stay-home period, and that teachers wanted to continue teaching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Keeping the social engagement piece of the programs alive, they found, also was vital \u2014 keeping young people connected with the teachers who\u2019ve been mentoring them throughout the school year and with their peers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhat we know we do really well, on a year-round basis, in the AfterWorks program is getting to know these kids really well and knowing exactly what they need in their music education studies,\u201d Wiltgen said. \u201cSo if that\u2019s the piece that we could continue, that\u2019s what we wanted to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The initiative to move AfterWorks online came organically from Wiltgen, her team and the AfterWorks teachers, not from the Music Festival brass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI was surprised and delighted when I heard this was happening,\u201d Music Festival president Alan Fletcher said. \u201cThis was not some direction given to teachers to figure out an online thing. It came intrinsically from them saying \u2018What can we do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Beginning Strings offers instruction in violin, viola and cello for children from second-grade up. Like the in-real-life version, the virtual one includes weekly one-on-one instruction through video chat apps, daily lesson plans for students to practice on their own, along with weekly studio classes split up in groups of no more than five students with a teacher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019ve heard from some parents that they\u2019re grateful their kid is busy and that they have a follow-up plan to practice,\u201d Wiltgen said. \u201cAnd also they\u2019re thankful to be continuing something that\u2019s normal for these students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For Lead Guitar, the Music Fest is putting together a \u201cvirtual showcase\u201d to replace the physical one they\u2019d planned for Harris Concert Hall this spring. Students will record themselves performing selected classical guitar pieces, and teachers will combine them for a virtual concert. The program also is launching group classes for beginning and advanced students, while Nick Lenyo, the regional director of the Lead Guitar program and music director at Basalt Middle School, is providing video instruction local students can use to practice with at their own pace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Maroon Bel Canto has its own virtual showcase in the works and virtual rehearsals starting the week of April 6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In those first days putting the program together, Wiltgen and her team looked for templates for this kind of virtual music instruction, but nothing fit and most of it was limited to one-sided video instruction or online curricula. They knew their students wanted and needed interaction and individual feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere was no model that we saw where we could harvest it and make it our own,\u201d Wiltgen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But they also were mindful of the onslaught of online programming that\u2019s been coming at parents in the stressful days since schools and public spaces began closing three weeks ago in the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThere are an abundance of resources for parents online and those resources are awesome but it\u2019s also overwhelming how many art opportunities there are,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we heard off the bat is that they wanted distilled information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">So they\u2019ve aimed to keep it simple and to keep their students\u2019 needs at the center of their mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe are in this for them,\u201d Wiltgen said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s exciting to be able to continue this through these scary times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:atravers@aspentimes.com\">atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/how-the-aspen-music-festival-after-school-programs-went-virtual-after-coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basalt Elementary School 3rd-grader Lela Wiltgen in a Zoom cello private lesson with teacher Roberto Arundale.Courtesy photo School buses from two school districts had been scheduled, a stack of pizza ordered, and five months of singing rehearsals had been logged before the scheduled spring concert by the Maroon Bel Canto Choir at Harris Concert Hall. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 06:23:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}