Spring 2023

Using Technology
to Enhance Your
School Concert
by Peter J. Perry, D.M.A.
I
will never take for granted the ability to sit down in person
with other people and play music together. One thing the
pandemic especially took away from musicians was this
ability, and more specifically, the ability to perform together for
our community. The excitement of having LIVE (non-virtual)
performances is palpable for our students and audiences. Some
performance mitigations that were previously necessary to get
back to this point used technology and can actually be beneficial
features to incorporate into our current and future programs.
While many of us may have technology heartburn, below are
two great ways to use some of the technology skills we acquired
during the pandemic to enhance the student and audience concert
experience (and make your life easier too).
Digitize Your Concert Program
A digital program
is an online document
located in the cloud
containing your concert
program. Typically,
audience members access
the program via Quick
Response (QR) Code.
Admittedly, I am late to
the game on this.
While I knew of
other educators and
some professional
performance venues
using digital programs,
I did not even consider
a digital program until I needed one that was contactless. I had
my template set, timeline to print laid out, and liked the “feel”
of a program in my hands during a performance (I still do). The
digitized version, however, has a lot of positive aspects.
Reprinted with permission from National Association for Music Education
(NAfME). The original article published on May 19, 2022 can be found here.
First and foremost, you can create a beautiful full-color
concert program FOR FREE. Unless you have a connection with
a commercial print shop this is nearly impossible with printed
programs. It also is current with our societal technology trends
and is sustainable (consider the box of unused programs that get
recycled or trashed after each concert). Additionally, as a digitized
document, you can make the program more dynamic.
You can:
Digital Program on CANVA, online publishing application
• Add active links to your program’s website or social media
feeds.
• Link program notes to selections.
• Spruce up the program with animated GIFs.
• Accept donations to an online payment system (OPS).
As a “living”
document, you can
continue to make
edits to the program
up to the concert’s
downbeat. While I
am not suggesting
procrastination, we
all have proofread a
program a thousand
times just to have an
error brought up the
night of the concert
(after a thousand
programs were printed).
With the digital
program, a simple edit fixes this problem and alleviates this worry
– even if it is as you take your first bow. These are all impossible
on physical paper.
You can use any publishing or word processing application to
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PERSPECTIVE
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