R.D. Parker Collegiate’s music department hosted this school year's first indoor concert in front of an in-person audience March 21.
The Spring Swing Thing featured the junior jazz ensemble, the Vocomotion vocal jazz choir and the Adrenaline jazz ensemble as well as a recording of RDPC’s senior concert band performing the Ukrainian national anthem at the outset of the concert, where a silver collection at the door raised money for relief efforts in Ukraine. which was invaded by Russia about a month ago.
Among the songs performed by the Adrenaline jazz ensemble was “Self Isolation Swing,” an original song written by one of its trombonists — Matthew Schultz —and arranged by RDPC music director Kevin Lewis. The song was a product of the sudden switch to online learning in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.
“It’s very difficult, due to how sound travels through internet and the latency and lag that happens, for musicians to make music remotely and so, in that early part of the pandemic, one of the things that we did in our online learning was do a little bit about jazz compositions and writing charts,” said Lewis.
RDPC’s next scheduled concerts are the spring band concert on April 21 and the spring choir concert on April 22.
The Spring Swing Thing was broadcast on YouTube for those who couldn’t attend in person.
