Due to my maintenance of an adjustable lesson format, my students did not have to make a difficult choice between continuing their musical study and protecting their health. Throughout the fall of 2020 and continuing into the spring of 2021, my students are able to switch between in-person or online instruction, at their own discretion, as necessitated by their health and safety. Many of my students in the University at Buffalo’s Department of Music are high risk individuals. In addition to being concerned for their own health and safety, my students also share living spaces with family members and roommates, whose health they must invest in protecting. One student in particular had planned on pursuing a large musical project during her fall 2020 semester at UB. She was going to study a Beethoven sonata in collaboration with a pianist in UB’s Master of Music program, but she was no longer comfortable coming to campus due to the pandemic. I worked with this student to develop a scheduling solution which allowed her to be on campus for this class in a manner which protected her and her family’s health. We agreed she would always be the first student of the day in the studio, which I would thoroughly clean before her lesson. No one would be in the room before her, thus limiting her exposure to other people, in addition to following the standard safety protocols of wearing masks and social distancing. My flexibility in scheduling our meetings allowed her to participate in this course, with fully in-person instruction, while she remained confident that she was only exposing herself to me and to the pianist.

The flexible class options I provided my students enabled them to continue pursuing the important aspects of musical skill, including performing music, participating in peer review, and receiving detailed individual and group instruction. In addition to general scheduling flexibility, I was also open to students choosing whether they would request in-person or online instruction, for any reason. Private violin lessons and group musical rehearsals were taught live over Zoom. Working partially or fully online did not require students to sacrifice the opportunity to work with musical collaborators or to perform. In lieu of giving live performances, I taught my students how to record themselves. They were all able to produce complete, high quality recordings of themselves performing their repertoire at the end of the fall 2020 semester. Many of these students do not have access to high quality recording equipment of their own, but I was able to provide sound equipment and taught them how to achieve the best possible results using their smartphones. Students were able to experience the challenge of preparing and performing music to a high level for an audience - a key part of music instruction - through their study of recording and participating in organized listening classes, even though they were largely unable to perform in-person due to Covid-19 restrictions. In addition to participating in both in-person and remote individual instruction, my violin students and I gathered for group classes over Zoom, where we listened to recordings which the students made and submitted. Scheduled at times of mutual availability, these meetings allowed students to support each other’s musical endeavors, provided them with an opportunity to share their music with an audience, and taught students how to listen critically when making their own recordings.

Developing the concept of adjustable lesson formatting as a teacher required me to reimagine the possibilities behind typical learning opportunities and goals for students of classical music. In addition to offering lessons both in person and online, at times and in a format beneficial to the student, I also recorded instructional videos demonstrating techniques which students could reference whenever needed. These videos were massively varied and tailored to each student’s questions and needs, from providing an accompanimental soundtrack with which the student could practice to tutorial videos describing how to deal with instruments breaking. I also helped my students reimagine the possibilities of what it means to perform, not only through teaching them how to record themselves at a high level, but also through pursuing opportunities to play together in groups while remaining socially distant and safe. I found multiple pieces of music which can be practiced, and performed together live, completely online. These pieces were created in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its necessary restrictions. Studying this music allows my students to perform in groups and exposes them to contemporary music while remaining entirely remote. I also consistently alerted my students to opportunities for them to observe professionals in their field give live performances through recordings and live-streams. Observing such performances is a necessary part of music education, inspiring students while also demonstrating the struggles and pitfalls of live performance. I always include a concert attendance requirement in my syllabi for all my students. Due to Covid-19, I began and continue to perform live-streamed concerts, and refer my students to these and others so they can continue to watch and learn from professionals in the music industry in spite of restrictions on in-person events. Though I had never given a live-streamed concert before the Covid-19 pandemic, I took on this learning opportunity of my own in order to provide the best possible online education for my music students. Working individually with students to meet their needs in my program, and finding creative ways to continue teaching music at a collegiate level while accommodating remote learning restrictions, have characterized my approach to online teaching.

The below links provide examples of my live-streamed concerts and teaching videos, where I demonstrate performance techniques and share wide varieties of music with my students.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB_G7tHIb-I
2. https://youtu.be/2cOXg2G-PhA and https://youtu.be/qf3FDSVdJ4o

The attendance rate for the fall semester in both my chamber music and private violin lesson courses was 100%, throughout the fall of 2020. Every student completed their final recording project on time and in full. Every student completed their performance attendance and studio class requirements in full, in spite of in-person event restrictions due to Covid-19.