WILMINGTON — Time and again, one door closed by the coronavirus has opened another at one of the local Catholic schools. Students and staff involved in music ministry at Padua Academy are now using technology to perform for the school’s virtual and in-person liturgical services.
Anna Alinda, Padua’s campus minister, said when schools moved the bulk of its group activities online last spring, she learned quickly that attempting to record together was not going to work because of the delay in the audio. Padua found that out while attempting a St. Patrick’s Day medley. Instead, staff members recorded backing tracks, and vocals were recorded individually and edited together.
Since the spring, the students have gotten more involved with the recording of the music as well as the vocals, and the process of editing the audio and voices has gotten faster and more fine-tuned.
“It’s been a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to try and engage the girls, except we miss the piece where the girls practice together on the cafeteria stage. But it’s still a really lovely way to be doing the music, to be doing our own music and not sort of using YouTube videos, and to keep engaging students along the way,” Alinda said.
This process has been used for the baccalaureate Mass and graduation in May, the closing school liturgy and this year’s opening liturgy. The students and staff recorded six new songs in November and another four in December. They also have reached beyond the walls of Padua.
“Some of our music ministry students were able to provide music for the Ministry of Caring for a fundraiser they’re doing. They did two Christmas songs for that. It’s worked pretty well,” she said.
Twenty-two students and seven staff members have been involved since the initiative’s inception. Not every student has to record every song, which is not preferable anyway, Alinda said. As more voices are added, the sound can get a bit cloudy, and it can be difficult to line up all of the individual submissions. Students are asked to work on specific songs.
Some girls ask to record every time, but they don’t have to. Alinda is grateful for the enthusiasm of all of the students and the staff that have taken part.
“I don’t sing well. I sing with enthusiasm but not with skill,” she said. “So, it’s been humbling and wonderful to have these colleagues who are giving so much of their extra time in creating guitar tracks and vocal tracks to then be able to share with the students.”
She added a special thanks to Padua teacher Dennis Leizear, who is the school’s multimedia teacher and has been a big help on the technical end.
Recording songs ahead of time allows the students the opportunity to record takes until they get the right sound, which doesn’t happen when they are live. Alinda has told them they don’t have to be perfect, but she appreciates their dedication.
Padua holds a liturgy about once a month, usually on Wednesdays, which is set aside for community time during the hybrid schedule this year. That is also a day for staff meetings, office hours and fun events. Sometimes, the Mass is recorded and premieres on the school’s YouTube channel during community time, Alinda said.
They have had a few live events at the school. On Dec. 2, the freshman class attended an Advent prayer service, and the sophomores had a Marian prayer service on Dec. 9. With restrictions on singing because of the projection of aerosols from the mouth, the music was recorded for both.
The songs that have been recorded will be used for other purposes as well, Alinda said. She said a Christmas thank you for the school’s benefactors was recorded.
“It is nice to have built up a library, to some degree, that is our students’ voices and our faculty and student musicians,” she said.
Alinda said she can’t wait for the students and staff to be singing in person together again, but she appreciates having a song library “for the times when we want to be able to reach out beyond the people who are present at a liturgy in the moment, and to be able to pray with them through song.”
