YOUNGSTOWN — The COVID-19 pandemic can’t silence the voices and music of Youngstown City School District’s Visual and Performing Arts program.

This past summer, Tracy Schuler Vivo, the district’s director of visual and performing arts, teamed up with Dan Keown of Youngstown State University to collaborate on a virtual winter performance piece entitled, “Together.”

The winter collaborative performance project encompasses the idea that “Even Apart, We Are Together.”

“Obviously, having to work virtually can create some challenges for our visual and performing arts teachers and scholars and I wanted to create an opportunity for scholars to have a high-level collaborative experience in light of their limited visual and performing arts class time during remote learning this school year,” Schuler Vivo said.

As part of the project, Keown’s YSU music students presented city school district vocal music students with videos that helped the schools’ VPA scholars. That also benefitted YSU music students by enhancing their experience with remote instruction at the college level.

“It truly has been a unique, rewarding and original collaborative effort,” Schuler Vivo said. “Dr. Keown and I had been hoping to team up for some time on a performance collaboration and it just so happened that with both YCSD VPA and the Voices of YSU finding ourselves in a remote learning situation this school year, this ended up being a great time for us to focus on a mutual ‘virtual’ collaborative performance.”

The “Together” performance video will be available on the Voices of YSU Facebook page at VoicesofYSU, YCSD.org and the district’s Facebook page at Youngstown City SD.

The virtual performance piece includes participation and collaboration between city school district music teachers and their scholars at East High School, Chaney High School and Choffin Career and Technical Center as well as YSU music recording instructor Jack Ciarniello and student and professional musicians.

Schuler Vivo also encouraged VPA teachers to participate in the collaboration as well by lending their talents. She also sings in the project while Dr. Keown employed his arranging and production / engineering talents behind the scenes.

Featured in the “Together” project are pictures of past VPA performances which include dance, drama and music performance pieces, Voices of YSU pictures, past VPA area collaborations and images of the VPA Unity Project in collaboration with Mill Creek MetroParks. That project started three years ago and grew to include school districts throughout Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties as well as YSU and Kent State University.

Images of the Unity Project have been used to beautify Downtown Youngstown. The VPA Unity project in collaboration with Mill Creek MetroParks will be presented online this school year as well in a virtual art gallery exhibit.

For more information about “Together,” the VPA “Even Apart, We are Together” performance project or the city schools’ VPA, contact Schuler Vivo at 330-207-0997 or at Tracy.Schuler-Vivo@youngstownk12.oh.us.

news@tribtoday.com