Sigma Alpha Iota

P A N P I P E S Spring 2021 17 17 VOCAL STUDY asked him how singing has impacted his overall physical and mental well-being during the pandemic. "Vocal study inspires you to make healthier choices. It greatly improves my mood, too. I get a strong emotional reaction out of myself when singing. It's really easy to unplug all my emotions, and it's important not to just numb out right now. Singing is such a release — I experience the highs and the lows, and singing helps equalize both." ere's Sònia Victoria Werner (who goes by Victoria), a sophomore studying Drama and Business in Entertainment Media and Technology at NYU Tisch. Victoria has been studying voice for a long time, and having turned her focus toward straight acting, has been taking voice lessons in school to get back into study. e pandemic forced her to change her plans to come back to New York, so she's stayed at home to study online while working several jobs. Despite the frustrations that come with learning remotely during a global health crisis, Victoria always stays positive. "Education means so much. We can't just quit when the going gets tough. It's like a reminder that you have to just keep going and there's always something new to learn." When asked how vocal study has affected her educational life during the pandemic, Victoria says, "Singing has helped keep me sane and grounded. You have to keep the things that fulfill you, and the arts are part of a holistic academic, emotional, and mental experience!" While Victoria hasn't been able to continue her study regularly with the demands on her schedule, she always makes time for a lesson whenever she can. "ere was a time this summer when I was really overworked, and I was feeling so overwhelmed by the lack of positivity out there. Some days I wouldn't have the energy to care — then we'd have a lesson and it was the best thing for me for the entire month. In a time when there are so few things to look forward to, that one thing made all the difference." And there's Phoebe Simon, a 4th-year Psych Major starting at Baruch College in New York City this year. Phoebe has studied with me since she was eleven, regularly while in middle and high school, and then on breaks when she started at Ithaca College. She had already planned to transfer to Baruch this year and live at home while going to school when the pandemic hit, so that changed her method of learning, and now she attends classes online at home, too. Phoebe took up voice lessons remotely for the first time in our study together this summer and has been continuing during her fall semester. "COVID did not play much of a role in my deciding to take lessons again," Phoebe admitted, "but I think it has made me appreciate the lessons more themselves. Stuck inside and oen feeling like there will never be an end to the current calamity is painful, but when I take lessons, I am reminded of the beauty that music brings into our lives." At a time when musical futures are unknown, it's easy to despair, to worry if our voices will be heard again, or if they ever were in the first place. is strange and oddly beautiful experience has taught me a lot, but most importantly, it has taught me this: we are making a difference. Our voices are heard and will continue to be heard. e creative and mundane, the innovative and traditional, the big and the small ways we continue to share our gis show our resilience and act as a beacon to the world. Keep going. What we give to our students and audiences right now is critical, and while it may feel like a small spark of light in a large dark tunnel, for some people, that light can mean everything. Laura Kay, an initiate of Eta Phi Chapter at Penn State University, is a singer, voice teacher, and arts administrator based in New York City. G rowing up in Pasadena, Charlyn Moltane experienced SAI meetings in her home hosted by her mother, Ruth Merrill Koster, a Sigma Tau initiate and charter member of the Pasadena Alumnae Chapter. An alumna of Gamma Pi at Cal State Long Beach, Charlyn enjoyed 37 years of teaching elementary general music and choir in the Garden Grove USD. She used her creative skills in writing, composing, art, drama, and dance with her students. Now in retirement, words and rhymes still pulse through her: "Although I have not been able to sing in my community chorus this year of staying at home, the music within me has not stopped. During these months I have had many thoughts about people and life. A beat is always pulsing through me and rhyming phrases flow out easily. Without lyrics, there wouldn't be a song. So here is one of my poems with its own musical merits." — Charlyn Moltane, VP Ritual, Orange County Alumnae Chapter Lyrics Have Musical Merit Remember when you worked a day So much to do and late you'd stay Demanding hours you'd obey Unending tasks and things to say Now with COVID, staying home Only in your house to roam Hours are mushy, floating, gone Sun comes up and then it's down The Hours of 2020 I'll tell you where the hours are They're on the clock, keeping track It winds around and spits them out It goes ahead, no going back The calendar 's another boss It tracks the days that you have lost A pretty picture top the page Will smile at you and watch you age My calendar is empty now It's been for months as we stay home Its special days have come and gone No family, friends to stay for long I miss them so, a smile, a hug A Zoomin' face is just a mug A body warm is what I need To know I'm human, yes indeed!

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