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The music students in the Wyoming Valley West school district have been gearing up for a series of spring concerts this season, but those plans were dashed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, in lieu of a traditional concert experience, the students — and even some alumni — have found another way to make themselves heard this evening.

The Community Porch Concert will take place from 6-6:30 p.m., featuring both current and former students performing for their neighbors. Instead of just one group, the students will play at various addresses around the district.

Christine Eyer, Wyoming Valley West’s orchestra director and a fifth grade strings instructor, has been instrumental in getting this set up, along with a few other members of the music department faculty.

“Megan Schneider, the middle school band director, and Andrew Kolojejchick, the high school band director actually came up with the idea,” Eyer said. “They ran it past me, and I loved the idea of giving our students an opportunity to still work towards something, and keep them motivated and practicing.”

According to Eyer, 11 spring programs were planned for the season — three in the middle school, three in the high school and one each at the five elementary schools in the Wyoming Valley West school district. The various grade levels were supposed to be collaborating this year, but the concerts had to be canceled in order to keep the students safe from the spread of COVID-19.

Eyer expects somewhere between 75-100 students to participate, but would be ecstatic to see more. Sprinkled in with the district’s current students will be several Valley West alumni.

“The collaboration with alumni has for the majority been done through word of mouth…social media has made it easier,” Eyer said.

She also added that a number of the alumni performers are current faculty members in the district, making it even easier to integrate them into the concert.

“Part of the beauty of being involved in the music department anywhere, you form a family bond that lasts with you your whole life,” Eyer said.

The students will be performing pieces that they had already been working on for the spring concerts. In the absence of face-to-face teaching, instructors and students have been practicing through a variety of resources.

“Our whole school district has done an incredible job with providing daily lessons of many different avenues for our students,” Eyer said. “We have weekly meetings and tutorials on different resources to help us better our students…I personally have been doing a lot of recording of myself playing my violin for students to view and practice along with.”

While this clearly wasn’t the plan for the Wyoming Valley West musical department this spring, Eyer and the rest of the faculty and the students have a lot to look forward to on Wednesday.

“Every student that I have spoken with, is excited to get to showcase their performances for their local neighbors/communities,” Eyer said.

“While they are bummed that it won’t be a traditional performance, they are excited that a performance is happening and although we aren’t physically together, in a way, we will be united as a department.”