Associate professor discusses making music in pandemic
Article By: Staff
When the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the University of North Georgia (ǧÃŬAV) to move online for the final two months of the spring 2020 semester, Dr. Esther Morgan-Ellis was disappointed. The old-time jam that she participated in every Friday at the Historic Vickery House on ǧÃŬAV's Dahlonega Campus was canceled for the foreseeable future.
"At the time, I could not conceive of making music with my friends in any way that did not involve physical co-presence," the associate professor of music said. "I assumed that we would not gather again until the pandemic had passed."
Morgan-Ellis was wrong. Thanks to technology, she engaged in more participatory music-making from March to May 2020 than in the six months preceding lockdown.
Morgan-Ellis chronicled her time during the pandemic and shared those experiences in a paper published in the "" journal. The journal plus Morgan-Ellis' article titled can be read online.
"It was an account about my experiences with online participatory music-making in the first few months of the pandemic," Morgan-Ellis said.
She also completed a peer-reviewed project during several months that detailed how The Sacred Harp community singers developed ways to meet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Online singing allows participants to access and celebrate their collective memories of the Sacred Harp community, carry out significant rituals, and continue to grow as singers," Morgan-Ellis wrote.
" was published in March 2021 in
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