Story Pitch: How COVID-19 Affects Music Education at UGA
According to Dr. Roy Legette, Area Chair of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s Music Education program, the music school is the quietest he’s ever seen it. One would normally hear a cacophony of practicing instruments and student conversations echoing through the halls of the University of Georgia’s music school. Now there is mostly silence. Faculty no longer occupy their offices throughout the day, students find alternative places to practice their instruments, and hardly anyone is attending class inside the school of music. The COVID-19 pandemic has emptied the building, silencing the school of music.
Studies have shown that musical instruments produce larger amounts of aerosols which can spread COVID-19 than individuals who speak and breathe normally. Playing the flute and singing are most problematic, producing the largest amounts of aerosols and spreading them further than other instruments can. But if music has become so dangerous, why do colleges continue to teach musicians? The answer is that music plays an important role in the lives of all people. Music brings people together and often helps people through emotional times. Sarah Robinson, strategic partnership coordinator of the Grammy Music Education Coalition for Music Makes Us at Metro Nashville Public Schools, was published in the Washington Post, saying that “there is no replacement for being together and making music.”
UGA has adopted new technologies, including Zoom, for classes and lessons, but has not yet solved the issue of showcasing their student’s work in performances. Students like trombonist Wyatt Dover are forced to endure the silence that has befallen the school of music, and make the best of practicing in parking garages and attending class in parking lots. With resources like practice rooms limited and new technologies required this semester, students like Dover are left to wonder whether their musicality will progress and how they will pay for the rising cost of being a music student during this pandemic.
