The Nixa High School Wind Ensemble was working on a piece called “Shenandoah” before the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders took effect. So they tried a virtual performance from home.

“The students had already rehearsed the music in person so we then we asked each of them to create a video of their individual performance,” Band Director Craig Finger said. “I quickly learned it isn’t as simple as hitting record. The slow tempo is hard enough but then the pulse fluctuates quite a bit so we had to add a metronome click and me conducting to help place everyone together. It took a couple of times for the kids to submit to get videos that we could work with.”

EagleAir TV producer Lucas Finger, who is also in the this ensemble but couldn’t add his percussion part since all the instruments are at school, spent about 15 hours working the video. This involved aligning all the individual parts and addressing levels for each video.