Music and Dance students thrive and go live again

One of the most noticeable gaps when COVID-19 hit the campus community was the absence of live music and dance. Despite the challenges of adapting to remote and outside-the-box performance spaces, students in the Music and Dance Program exceled in their crafts and created unconventional—and unforgettable—moments.

• The class of 2021’s Natalie Lewis, a classical musical performance major, received a full scholarship to obtain her master’s degree at the Juilliard School, made possible through the highly competitive Kovner Fellowship Program, which selects outstanding musicians from around the world based on artistic merit, successful academic history, and potential for leadership in the field. Learn more.
   
• New live performances and beloved traditions came front and center in Amherst. The UMass Amherst Wind Ensemble, which was restructured during the pandemic into 14 separate chambers to accommodate distancing protocols, came together in the fall to offer Bandtoberfest, a family-friendly outdoor musical event that celebrated the joy of autumn and the harvest. November also saw the 47th annual Multiband Pops Concert, the university’s spectacular, fast-paced showcase of jazz, wind, dance, orchestral, and percussion ensembles, with additional performances by Minuteman Marching Band. Learn more.