Musical Mosaics-Presented by the SCF Concert and Chamber Choirs, Thursday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.-Facebook Livestream

Musical Mosaics-Presented by the SCF Concert and Chamber Choirs, Thursday, March 4, 7:30 p.m.-Facebook Livestream

Just as using shards of glass and tile to create a whole new image in art, so can individual singers be brought together to create a variety of vocal ensembles from small duos to a large choir. In this concert, the SCF Choirs will explore the many ways of presenting choral music during challenging times.

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Transcript

Musical Mosaics

Melodie Dickerson: Today. I am very excited to share the microphone with three of our SCF choral and vocal students, Lylyana Brych, Fred Brown and Melanie Pires to chat about our upcoming choral concert, entitled Musical Mosaics to be presented Thursday, March 4th at 7:30 PM. Welcome to the club. 

Lylyana Brych: Hi. Great. 

Melodie Dickerson: Thank you. Since this is the first time for each of you on the Suncoast Culture Club podcast, I would like to ask each one of you to tell me just a little bit about yourselves and your studies at SCF. I'm going to start with Melanie. 

Melanie Pires: Hi, my name is Melanie Pires. I'm a music education major and a music tech minor. I'm an alto 2 in Ms. Dickerson's, everything, whatever choir she has here. And I love being here. 

Melodie Dickerson: Great. And you take voice lessons as well. 

Melanie Pires: Of course, I take voice lessons with Ms. Samone Hicks.

Melodie Dickerson: Great, wonderful. And what year is this for you? 

Melanie Pires: This is my first year, my second semester at. The state college of Florida. 

Melodie Dickerson:  And where did you go to high school? Melanie? 

Melanie Pires: I went to high school at Riverview high school in Sarasota, right, 

Melodie Dickerson: With a wonderful, wonderful choir director. Mr. David Verdone. 

Melanie Pires: Yes. I love him.

Melodie Dickerson: Perfect. Thank you, Lily. You're also a first year music student here. Tell us about yourself and your journey. 

Lylyana Brych: Hi, my name is Lylyana Brych and this is my second semester here and I'm majoring in vocal performance. I take voice lessons with you, Melodie Dickerson, which is amazing. Just say it. It's an amazing opportunity to be here at this school. And I am in concert choir, which I sing soprano one, and I'm also in musical theater. And I love this program. It's my passion. And I'm so grateful to be here. 

Melodie Dickerson: Thank you. Where would you like to go once you finish here at SCF? 

Lylyana Brych: I really want to go to FSU. It's my dream to go to FSU and learn more and more about what it is to be a performer. 

Melodie Dickerson: So vocal performance for you. 

Lylyana Brych: Absolutely.

Melodie Dickerson: Great. And now, Fred, I'm gonna turn it to you because this is your second year here at SCF. 

Fred Brown: Yes, this is hello. My name is Frederick Brown. I am now a second year student here at SCF. I am going for a vocal performance major and. I am also considering a minor in violin performance as well. 

Melodie Dickerson: , wonderful. Fred, I'm going to ask you a little bit because. This , may be a little off the radar as compared to our concert, but  the past year we've had the COVID pandemic and last spring, , all of us in , whatever school or whatever institution we were just shut down immediately. How did that affect you? 

Fred Brown: I would say how it would have affected me is that it did make. Wanting to learn and make music with other people a lot more difficult than what we all had hoped for. But just to know that music, isn't something that we can. Just have a boundary forward just because of COVID 

Melodie Dickerson: Right. And I was wondering too, because I think you had some difficulty because all the classes went online and you had some difficulty maintaining a good internet connection. Do you mind sharing about that? 

Fred Brown: Yes, absolutely. So when COVID started happening in what by who I was with and with everything going on and we needed to get family out of the more. Higher rated places for COVID. With having around a lot of people in one household, just trying to be safe and be quarantined and everything made the internet that we had very. Slow. So I'm able to doing my online lessons, all of my submissions and everything. There is a lot of dates that we're not able to get submitted and network pass, unfortunately.

Melodie Dickerson: Right. And so you kind of had to make up some work over the summer and into the fall, but. You did. 

Fred Brown: Yes, absolutely. I'm right back on track and I'm glad to be here.

Melodie Dickerson:  Great. So now let's  chat about this upcoming concert Musical Mosaics, which is why we're here sharing with everybody today. So I wanted to tell you, I think I've mentioned this in rehearsal, but it's a concept which came to my mind last summer when we were not all sure how this COVID pandemic would alter our abilities to present concerts. I'm sure you all were wondering when you were talking with me this summer. Are we actually going to have class? Are we actually going to be able to have a choir? So I had the idea that maybe we might not be able to sing in a large group, but maybe we could assemble four or five students together in a small group to learn music and various styles and time periods with each group acting kind of like a musical tile in a mosaic.  And a song. That is one of my favorite choral pieces. Music's Empire by Lloyd Fausch popped into my head head because it has the line, , the mosaic of the air. And I was like musical mosaics. That's what it is. It's all these small groups  that maybe aren't exactly related in their theme, but they are all coming together to make this little tile. So . That's where the concept of the concert came from now. Fortunately, we were able to come together in the fall and in the spring. Right. And we were had concerts, which we were able to produce and present on Facebook live. So that was a good thing. But staying with the theme, I was like, we're still going to do the small group concept and do the small group concept requires student leadership. And I know that's something that I'm very big here at SCF  is having students take on leadership roles because that's what you need to do. That's what we're training you to do to go forward. I don't need to be in charge of every single thing. I liked it when you take on the challenge of  leadership. So I chose a few students who would act as the leader or director of a small group, both in , chamber, choir, and concert choir, and well, each of you were three that accepted the challenge. Now we actually have nine groups. . So there are many students who have stepped up to  take this on in the leadership thing. So I'd like to hear, and I'm sure the audience would be interested to know. It's like, okay, Ms. Dickerson  calls you up and says, so would you like to be in charge of directing a group? And you're like, Okay. think that might be fun. And I gave you all a list of songs that I had kind of pre gone through and songs that kind of related to music in a general thematic way. So. Melanie, you chose a song and it's not an English. So what's the title of your song and why did you choose it? 

Melanie Pires: I chose foul, not Consona because my last year at high school, David Verdoni picked phone a Consona as one of our last pieces for our Renaissance feast. And I was really moved. By the piece, it has wonderful chord structure and like our harmonies together, it just really makes me happy as a little choir director at heart.

Melodie Dickerson: , and what's it been like to work with your group? How many people are in your group? 

Melanie Pires: There are six people in my group, including myself. They're lovely people. They really want it. They really, really want it. So they work very hard. 

Melodie Dickerson: So you work with me and with Ms. Varnadore our accompanist, but then you also have to go off on your own.  What's that been like? 

Melanie Pires: Right. So everybody has a job, right? Everybody has a job as a student and an outside job to pay the bills. So , it's hard to get everybody together, but. We did it. So every Wednesday, after our normal classes, we come together and we practice our songs. 

Melodie Dickerson: Great. Wonderful. And it's coming along and your song is in Italian. Is that had any challenges? 

Melanie Pires: Oh, most definitely. I had You record our Italian for us so we could practice it over and over and over again. Originally the song is five verses, but we said, Oh no, no. Oh no, no, we're doing it in three because it's hard learning another language. that you're just not used to it.

Melodie Dickerson:  For sure. Fred, tell me about you kind of are working with two songs, really. So tell me about what you're doing. 

Fred Brown: So for one of the pieces I'm doing is actually a title from a famous hymnal called all love. That will not let me go. And really for this piece, it was a story behind the hymn that really decided to, 

Melodie Dickerson: And who is singing in this group? Is this men, 

Fred Brown: This is all men. Is actually a barbershop style piece. And for this piece on barbershop, we label it as bass baritone, our lead and then our tenors. So yeah, 

Melodie Dickerson: four apartments. 

Fred Brown: Yes. 

Melodie Dickerson: And what's it been like? 

Fred Brown: , it has been very. Bay proactive, I would say in everyone's investment into the piece, because once we've gone down and we were able to make the music for it, everyone felt just a little more invested into a little more saying, yes, I want to make this thing happen. And I want to show people. 

Melodie Dickerson: And  tell us about this hymn, the style of it, and what you feel. Is there a certain emotion about this particular, piece.

Fred Brown:  So , this piece I would say is in a very. Rubato or a legato style of section. So it's a very smooth, longing, connected, and with the energy and the emotion behind the words that we sing, I feel that when we communicate with each other through it, you can really tell  just how much we love this piece and how much we would like to show, the love that is piece has taught all of us individually to you all. 

Melodie Dickerson: That's great. And then you're also working with the chamber choir and we're doing a piece called insalata Italiana 

Fred Brown: yes, yes. In Salata. , I love this piece. It's a very musical jokey piece. Yes, . And the parody has a little spits and spazzes .

Melodie Dickerson: But it's made up of all musical terminology. Right. So it doesn't really have a story. It's just kind of an,  parody about people singing in kind of some funny stylistic ways. 

Fred Brown: Absolutely. And then we have many soloists that will take that. Interpretation to a whole new level, and I'm so excited for everyone to see it.

Melodie Dickerson: So I think everybody is going to get a big chuckle out of this, you know, choral music. Doesn't have to all be sad and dreary does it. No, it can also be funny. So I'm going to turn it to Lily because you kind of have a, different piece and. Yours also has some humor with it as well. So tell us the name of the piece you're doing and who you're working with.

Lylyana Brych: So the name of the piece is the Overture to the Magic Flute by Mozart. This piece is so fun. Oh my goodness. 

Melodie Dickerson: It's based on the actual overture that was written for the orchestra. 

Lylyana Brych: Absolutely. Yes. 

Melodie Dickerson: And then what, kind of group, are you using with this? 

Lylyana Brych:  It's for all the girls of both choirs, chamber and concert, and it's Alto one Alto two soprano, one soprano two, all four voice parts. 

Melodie Dickerson: So it was written  just for an orchestra, so  are their words or their syllables? , what is it? 

Lylyana Brych: It's more like syllables, more like again, absolutely. 

Melodie Dickerson: That , makes it sometimes a little harder too, because there's not really a text to follow. You have to remember what, 

Lylyana Brych: and it's very polyphonic, so it's a lot of different melodies combining into. , one piece of music 

Melodie Dickerson: Right now, how did you choose it?

Lylyana Brych:  Well, you gave us a list of songs and Olivia, Olivia Alicia from chamber choir. Yes. And we were looking through the songs and we were looking at more of like the slow, more feely songs. And you, you were like, how about you look at these songs? They're a little bit more up. He just take a look at them. And when we came across this song, me and Olivia just like grabbed our heads. We were like, this looks so much fun. We have to try it. 

Melodie Dickerson: Yes. And it is quite challenging. 

Lylyana Brych: It is very challenging. 

Melanie Pires: Just a little,

Melodie Dickerson:  Just a little, you're finding it. Challenging. Melanie, are you finding it challenging 

Melanie Pires:  Yes. It's very much syllables. A lot of syllables, but when it all comes together, it's so fast and it's so fun. It's a great experience and Liliana is teaching it so well. 

Melodie Dickerson:  . So, Lily, what have you learned from the process of working with the students  

Lylyana Brych: Well, I have always been someone who, wasn't really one to take charge, never. And when you came to me with this opportunity, this was so new. I had to completely step out of my comfort zone. And the first time I came to  direct I was so nervous and I was so scared. But it was so rewarding at the same time, because of once they started understanding their parts, once it started flowing together, it made me feel so proud of them. And I was like, it's coming together 

Melanie Pires: the most rewarding feeling in the entire world when you're like there and , your blood, sweat, and tears. You're like, come on guys. And then , once everyone is all together and seeing harmoniously, you're like, Oh my God, they did it 

Melodie Dickerson: Right. Because it's a big responsibility. Isn't it to 

Melanie Pires: huge responsibility 

Melodie Dickerson: And Lilly.  Some days you're with me. And  I'm,  helping you a little bit more, but then sometimes you're with Ms. Varnadore when you're in charge a little bit more.  What did you do in those rehearsals 

Lylyana Brych: So I found it very helpful.  First two rehearsals to just go over the parts separately with each part. 

Melodie Dickerson: So you had sectionals. 

Lylyana Brych: We did have sectionals. We split up we had a piano player go with the Altos and then we had miss V with the sopranos and we. went over our parts over and over again. And then the last 10 minutes we would come together and we would sing the song together and it would be just amazing. 

Melodie Dickerson: Right.  And that is the best feeling when it's coming together. It's the scary feeling when it's not coming together as much. Fred, , did you have any thoughts about feeling responsible for your groups and learning the songs?

Fred Brown: I wouldn't feel like I do.  Because it is the leadership that I brought to the team to perform and make this. So I would say that through my leadership, it is also my job to get people motivated and. Enthusiastic about what they're doing. 

Melodie Dickerson: So  do you text folks and you have the meet you at certain times, 

Fred Brown: I always try to text them and make appointments for them to go over their parts. And if they so happen to not have anything busy at that time, I always find a way to play their part for them and send them a recording for them to practice that. 

Melodie Dickerson: I love that. And this again goes to, for our audience students taking on leadership because when you're invested and you're like, Hey, it's my name up there? Hey, I'm in charge. I'm  responsible for these people. I'm going to certainly make sure it gets done. So I always ask myself, what do I hope, audience will experience from a piece of music or from a concert. Melanie, do you have any ideas that you want to share? Like what do you hope the audience will feel when they finish hearing? Fona Consona 

Melanie Pires: Really just want them to feel something, whether it's negative or positive, just something I want them to move. Like feel moved in there, 

Melodie Dickerson: But yours is kind of an upbeat song. So I mean, and it means about like to sing and we want to sing. And , all the different things about the fun things. So I would think that you would want them to like, yeah, yeah, 

 Melanie Pires: , I would love them to be like uplifted and very happy after , they hear us say here, 

Melodie Dickerson: Fred, what would you like the audience to feel from any of the songs or from a particular song?  

Fred Brown: What sticks out to me in specific is the.  Ola that will not let me go. And really what I do want people to get from this song is that you do not have to be religious, or you don't have to be of any sort of spiritual belief to. Really feel and connect with the words that we're embracing 

Melodie Dickerson: And the way that it's written, the beautiful harmonies and the way that the,  male voice is sound together. It just really brings that 

Fred Brown: Of course and there's a lot of different changes that happens that we play with tempo and everything to really add on to that dramatic and emotion effect. 

Melodie Dickerson: So you mentioning changing tempos, so that means that everybody has to do what 

Fred Brown: One does have to look up and we do stay together and we have cues for that as well. But  mostly  we feel the music. Oh, 

Melodie Dickerson: Bingo. You're feeling it. . And you can't really feel the music if you're like buried in the music. Right. You got to have that music and he's gotta be in your brain and in your heart and your mind. Cause then that way you can have that thing with other people, you know, all his singers, it's different than instrumentalist. They have a music stand in front of them and they can use that. And they have an instrument in front of them. Fred, your violinist. 

Fred Brown: Yes. 

Melodie Dickerson: It's a different feeling, right? 

Fred Brown: Completely different world 

Melodie Dickerson: When you're playing in the orchestra. 

Fred Brown: Yes. Cause if you would take my sheet music away from a violin and you'd be like, ah, no, I need that. But I do feel a bigger and tighter connection when I'm off book. 

Melodie Dickerson: Right. So as a singer Lily, when you're off book, so to speak, you're not using the music. How does that help you communicate to the audience? 

Lylyana Brych: It's all about emotion. I believe. How you connect to your song and  the emotion you portray through the song, through the words, through the melody, everything, the dynamics that you put in the song, it all kind of ties in equals to what emotion you portray and what they feel from that emotion.

Melodie Dickerson: Right. And you've both used the word feel and we want the audience to feel. Something feel a connection because that's why people come to concerts. Melanie, do you have something to add to that 

Melanie Pires: When you are a singer and you're ups on stage and you're not staring into the music, you are definitely more vulnerable as a human, you are way more vulnerable. You are way more exposed. So. It's like, you , have to have a connection with your music or else it's going to, 

Melodie Dickerson: And then you're a vessel and all that, that you've been working on. I always like to say  it's like,  the rehearsal time, the practicing time, all of that, that's something that you're building inside of you inside of you, inside of you. And then when it comes time to perform, then. You're able to share, and it comes out of that vessel. So the more you put in the vessel, right? The more you have to share. 

Melanie Pires: And it's a completely different feeling , when you're on stage and you're singing, I feel like you're just connected to every person's soul and mood.

Melodie Dickerson: Sure. And your confidence.  There's. 13 tolls pieces in the program. So that's a lot of music for people to learn and be able to do. So I'm going to ask you all, like what you think about this theme of the concert, like the musical mosaic and all the songs you're singing, cause , this is an eight week rehearsal process and we put it together. Is there anything that anybody would like to share  lilly 

Lylyana Brych: From the concerts that we've had before. This is different for me and in a good way, it's different style of music, all combined to different groups. You just hear differences in every song and it's one concert. So just hearing it is so amazing.  

Melodie Dickerson: And maybe hearing , your other students in the room, in your choir going, wow. I didn't know that they could do that.  It's been a little scary for a few people I know who are like. I just wanted to be in a choir with like a good number of people. I didn't want to kind of have to be the only person on my part. And now they're the only person on their part. Right, Melanie. 

Melanie Pires: Right. So  encouraging the students to be confident within themselves because now they know they have to know their part. . More than anything than blending in with the choir  

Melodie Dickerson: And singing softly or being shy. , and I've seen a great improvement from that. 

Melanie Pires: Oh,  it makes me so, so happy. You have no idea . From the first day up until now, they were all very quiet and shy and they felt out of their comfort zone. But now they're all loud and confident and beautiful little  butterflies. 

Melodie Dickerson: That makes me,  so happy. And I'm so excited to see all this, you know, Fred R. Two concerts in the fall. The first is the fall festival and that's kind of like an all skate, like all of our ensembles. So we really just had a few songs to learn, right. And one that we did together and then each choir sing a song on their own. So not a lot. And then the holiday concert, we were with the orchestra and we did some on our own, but it was a different feeling.  This is just choirs for all of you who are listening. If you'd like choral music. And if you'd like to hear different types, , it's everything from Renaissance to contemporary music .Anybody else want to add on,  about the concert? Yes. Fred. 

Fred Brown: So for this theme, mosaics, I always think of mosaics as small or little pieces of glass or stone or colored stones to make one big picture or whole. And I know that we haven't talked this earlier, but I was not the only one that face difficulties during the COVID period last year. So being able to come in now, And how, you know, a mosaic has have different elements of different people. Being able to  have people in here that are still invested in the music still want to perform still want to put on a show for people despite the situation that we're having right now today, I feel will really show. And the impact of that you will get in the fullest amount. , 

Melodie Dickerson: I think I would say that all of the students that are here in our music ensembles this year have made the decision because they want to be here. And we may not have as many as we have had in the past years because of the COVID pandemic. Everybody that's here. Has made the choice and is investing in that choice. And ,  we are so grateful to the state college of Florida for offering us this opportunity to be together. We know that it's not this way in other parts of the country, in fact, in even some other schools in our state. So I think. You all feel very, very grateful, 

Melanie Pires: Super grateful 

Melodie Dickerson: To have that. And one of the ways that we have been able to do that is that we've had to have social distancing  and we've all had to learn how to wear the singing mask, 

Melanie Pires: The singing mask. 

Melodie Dickerson: Okay. Melanie, talk about that because  everybody's like, what is that?

Melanie Pires: As  one of the faculty has said to me, we kind of look like platypuses  but we have a  much greater sound. 

Melodie Dickerson: And why is that? , what is the shape of the mask? 

Melanie Pires: The shape of the mask is duck. Like there is a band that is around that 

Melodie Dickerson: it's a metal band inside. 

Melanie Pires: Correct. And. instead of muffling with a mask, it releases, and you're able to breathe  and speak clearly clearly, because it's really hard to determine  the vowels of your sound and if your tongue is up or down or left or right. And you can't really figure out what they're doing wrong or right. When they're singing the phrase or when they're breathing without having, , a clear,

Melodie Dickerson: Right. And you can't even see me doing the vocal modeling to you either. 

Melanie Pires: Like when you're conducting the piece, the lyrics, if we forget them, 

Melodie Dickerson: You won't do that though. 

Melanie Pires: We won't do that. Oh, no, no, no. . 

Melodie Dickerson: even still just having less ability to have a good facial expression . And Lily, what about being six feet apart from other people? How has that impacted, , your particular sound in the choir sound 

Lylyana Brych: Well being one out of two or three, number one Sopranos in concert choir. At first, it was a little bit difficult because , when you're all shy, it's the beginning of the semester, you couldn't really hear anyone and you're just like singing a solo by yourself. And I feel like everyone felt that as well. Not just me in every part. 

Melanie Pires: Definitely.  

Lylyana Brych: But I have to say for some songs, I think when you're spread out a little bit, it's actually very beautiful sound. And once people are more confident, which they are starting to become more confident, the sound blends way more beautifully, and you don't have the urge to hide behind someone else's voice. , You have to pull your own weight. If you can't hear the Altos, that's your issue. You have to hear everyone. You have to blend and. , I feel like it works and it is still difficult, but it could work. 

Melodie Dickerson: Right. And it is working.  Fred, anything to add on to that? 

Fred Brown: Yes. I would like to say as an important thing that you would have to do with mask diction is a very big thing that I personally have gained from wearing the masks because I have been a vocal student now around three and a half years, so not too long. So I still have that little fundamental stretch to go to indiction and vows were my biggest two weak points. And for this year, especially, I feel like me being able to pronounce my words more clearly and more collectively have been very, beneficial because of the masks. 

Melodie Dickerson: Yes, Melanie 

Melanie Pires: Something to add on Lilly's thing on the very first day of school. . I remember Ms. Dickerson talking to us. And saying that it's very weird that it's been very weird. Cause us coral, people love to hug. We love hugging. We love being together. We love chit-chatting. We love. All of these things and now we really can't do them, but there have been other ways that we can hang out and kind of communicate social distance and be safe. 

Melodie Dickerson: And we have learned it. And  I want to say to everybody who's out there, we have made some new learning things. You've heard the students talk about it here, things that we've had to do that we didn't have to do before. So. In every difficult situation, we can always find another way. And we have to do that because when you're teaching people how to sing, how to read music, how to make choral music together, some days it's just not working. You have to go, I got to go back to the drawing board. What do I need to do? , how can I approach this? How can I change this? What can we do? And sometimes in the middle of the rehearsal, you just have to switch it up and make a difference. But . One of my favorite words you all know is  investment, investment investment  if you're investing your time, talent, and energy,  , you will be successful. So I'm glad that we've learned how to sing with the singing mask. But one day in the hopefully near future next year, we'll be able to sing without the masks, but we'll be appreciative.  Of that and , let everybody know that,  we really want to commit to this. I hope that it means a time that you've learned. It could be taken away at any second, our ability to be together. 

Melanie Pires: And now we have better addiction. 

Melodie Dickerson: Yes. And now we have better diction! And, , that's one of my big things. So we're going to keep talking and talking about diction and keep trying to unify vowels and have good continents. The reason  is that singers people in a choir have something to communicate that instrumentalists don't. And what is that? The text, the text is Sue per important. And it really is the thing that makes the connection with the audience. Even though the music may be very beautiful or very funny or very different. It's what people are hearing and singing. And our last song on the concert is  to me, a great wrap-up. How can I keep from singing despite all the trials and tribulations that we've faced this past year? Singing has been one thing. That's kept everybody going. Wouldn't you agree? 

Lylyana Brych: Yes,

Melodie Dickerson: Absolutely. So now that everybody is excited, y'all out there listening to podcast. I hope you're excited about the concert and while we wish we could share with you in person in the beautiful Neel, Performing Arts Center, it's not going to be able to do that for this concert. So Fred, can you tell everybody how they are able to view and listen to our wonderful singers? 

Fred Brown: Our wonderful singers will be able to be viewed off of our Facebook live that you can be found on our SCF music page on Facebook.

Melodie Dickerson: Great. And what if you're like, okay, but I want to read the program. , How do I know what songs are coming up 

Fred Brown: Not a problem at all? If you just go to either your Google play store or Apple play store, you can download the SCF music app. That's SCF music on your play store, and then you can find the list of concerts that were performing. Our upcoming concerts and our list of singers that are doing it. 

Melodie Dickerson: I think that's just the coolest thing we want to thank Dr. Robyn Bell for making this happen for us this year that we have an app. So even if we had an audience here, nobody would have to touch papers or anything like that. They'd just be able to do it. And it's great , to just be able to see right there  all the personnel and all the songs.  Now Melanie. Since it's Facebook live. , is there a charge for this concert? 

Melanie Pires: Oh, absolutely not. It's 100% free 

Melodie Dickerson: 100%  free, but , we know there's no free in this world. All of the ensembles here to SCF utilize our nominal, really our nominal charge that we asked for the concert. It goes into all of our ensemble. Accounts to use, to buy music, to buy equipment, to help get more costuming. , we wear dresses in tuxedos and everybody has to have one of those and we have to provide that for everybody. So since  we're not getting that revenue this year, we're kind of hoping that people will donate. What do you think, do you think people would donate just even if it's a dollar, it can be a dollar, it can be $5. You know, if you want to write three or four zeros after that, that's fine too. That's fine. So, Lily, how can people donate if they do want to donate? 

Lylyana Brych: It's actually very simple. You can text SCFMUSIC to the number 41444. 

Melodie Dickerson: Great. Say that one more time. Maybe everybody's running to get a pencil.  I got to donate. The concert is not even happening, but I want to donate these students have been amazing. So what is it again, 

Lylyana Brych: text SCFMUSIC to the number 41444. 

Melodie Dickerson: Great. Thank you. And Fred, where do they watch this? 

Fred Brown: You can watch it on our Facebook live. 

Melodie Dickerson: And Melanie does it cost a dime doesn't cost a thing 

Melanie Pires: You can donate, 

Melodie Dickerson: But you can donate . Thank you all for that information. And I would like to thank Lylyana. Fred and Melanie for joining me on the Suncoast Culture Club Podcast, I'm sure that you will agree that we have some very, very special music students at the State College of Florida. And it is indeed my privilege and pleasure to work with these fine students every single day every day. If you are listening to this podcast and are interested in joining Lily, Melanie and Fred in choir or our musical theater ensemble next year. Would we want them to come? 

Lylyana Brych: Absolutely.

Melanie Pires: I would love to speak with you 

Melodie Dickerson: Melanie herself. We would welcome you to come to SCF, where there are many opportunities to qualify for scholarships to assist your studies and all three of you are scholarship students, and I'm sure that's made a big difference for you this year.

Melanie Pires: Yes,

Fred Brown: Absolutely.

Melanie Pires: With COVID. Yes. 

Lylyana Brych: Yes.

Melodie Dickerson: Yes, and the support of the scholarships helps all of our music students be able to take lessons to be able to be involved and to just support their lifelong ambitions in music or music, education, or music, performance, wherever they are. And if you're listening out there and you have a son or daughter, or you have grandchildren , or you have friends that you say that's a talented person and they live in Sarasota, Manatee counties. They need to go to a State College of Florida in Bradenton and be a part of the music program, which is now part of our Performing Arts Department. , so we all still have a little more practicing to do so we will say goodbye for today, but don't worry. we'll be ready to present Musical Mosaics on March 4th. At 7:30 PM on Facebook live. Thank you for listening to the Suncoast Culture Club Podcast, where we bring you all the best news about the arts on the Suncoast of Florida.