With a new project, the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio continues to generate silver linings for the COVID-19 clouds. “San Antonio Sounds” brings together different types of local musicians, despite not being able to make music together in the same room.
The collaborative music video project allows YOSA musicians the opportunity to embellish the work of other local artists. Music Director Troy Peters asked some of the pop, rock and hip-hop acts YOSA has worked with in the past to participate.
"And then we created new orchestra parts to go with the existing song. Our latest is ‘String Me Along’ with Andrea ‘Vocab’ Sanderson," he said. "Andrea is the poet laureate of San Antonio, but she's also a really talented singer and rapper."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnPYlNx_PGk
The song she provided is called "String Me Along," and Peters wrote and arranged the parts the students played.
"We had string players and a harpist record their parts at home on video, and we were able to mix all that together," he said.
Sanderson recorded her parts, and that video was added alongside the students playing their parts to create Zoom-style performance . Peters said the imagery inherent in the ‘String Me Along’ made for fertile musical ground.
"Andrea's using a metaphor about the phrase ‘string me along,’ when you're talking about somebody who's in a relationship, and then going to all other kinds of imagery that comes out of strings," he said.
Not being able to get together and learn as a unit has been tough on the young musicians. That said, Peters thinks these recurring video projects are keeping their creative juices flowing.
"It's exciting to be a part of creating something new. Even if you're making a video in your own bedroom, you know it's part of something bigger than just you," he said.
He expects that this won't be the last in the San Antonio Sounds series.
"We're looking forward to try and find ways for young musicians to keep moving forward and have life-changing experiences together," he said.
Jack Morgan can be reached at Jack@TPR.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii.
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