Performing and sharing of talent in public is such a crucial aspect of being a musician, and losing access to in-person events and recitals has been particularly challenging for the LMU Music Department. As an important part of the program’s curriculum, the department has been working hard to find new ways to virtually connect with their community following the transition to remote learning. Thus, sprang the idea to develop a concert series called the Second Thursdays – a musical collaboration between current students, alumni, and faculty members, to share their talents with the world.
“When we switched to the online modality, we were looking for ways for our students to continue to have performance opportunities and for us to be able to reach out to the LMU community,” said Martha Masters, clinical guitar faculty and de-facto concert series organizer. “It is a great opportunity for our students to develop their performances to a higher level as well as become more comfortable performing in the online space, which we are now seeing may be increasingly necessary in the future.”
The Music Department wanted to go beyond their existing weekly performance course by allowing the LMU music community to share their work and for current students to prepare for their senior recitals. “It’s this opportunity for our more advanced students to prepare for their senior recitals to share what they’re doing and for the community to be able to see the hard work and the wonderful results that they’re producing,” Masters said.
The most recent concert series was held on October 8, 2020. The performance began with a vocal presentation by Marlaina Owens, a Soprano and LMU alumni. Owens was accompanied by Valeria Mogovskaya on the Piano. Following Owen’s vocal performance was a guitar performance by 2016 LMU alumni, Brian Rodriguez. Rodrigues shared his gratitude for the concert series and his excitement for being included. The next performance was by Tilly Rudolph on the Piano, another former Lion. Next, was a performance from the LMU Combined Choruses in which they performed a special commission piece from the World of Color Winter Dreams Show that premiered at Disneyland in 2013. The performance was recorded in December of 2019. To end the series, LMU Faculty members, Kenichiro Aiso and Valeria Mogovskaya, performed a piece by George Gershwin.
Masters shared the Music Department’s interest in hoping to continue this event in-person, once permitted. “Really, in general, we’ve been trying for a while; even when we’ve been in person, to find more ways to interact and connect,” Masters said. “At this point, our options are limited to only virtual but it’s something that we hope to continue when we get back on campus to have a monthly performance series.”
The next installment of the Second Thursdays Concert Series is set to occur on November 12, 2020. You can view all past Second Thursdays concerts here.
