School of Music begins realtime lessons with Internet2 connection to London

Fort Worth

1/29/2007

A new day for college-level music instruction in North Texas dawns Wednesday, Feb. 7, when two TCU School of Music students sit down at the Steinway for a masterclass with a renowned piano teacher in London. Meanwhile, Christopher Elton, head of keyboard studies at the Royal Academy of Music there, will have two of his students receiving instruction from José Feghali of the TCU piano faculty and gold medalist at the 1985 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. It’s the future of teaching and performance, made possible through advanced Internet2 technology – an ultra fast, very high bandwidth, virtually instantaneous Internet connection currently only available at selected educational institutions and research organizations.

The session, due to begin at 9 a.m. in PepsiCo Recital Hall on campus, is just the first of many opportunities ahead. Through the use of high resolution video cameras, audio quality that’s even better than CD and a nearly nonexistent time-lag between locations, Internet2 connections literally open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Last year, the University began to experiment with a live streaming video Webcast of the TCU Latin American Music Festival, and both Webcasting and Internet2 broadcasting of Adam Golka’s recitals of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas. Further research and fine-tuning of the technology are now making the rest possible. Later this spring, a TCU percussion major has an appointment to audition for the Royal Academy in real time, with the London faculty able to interact appropriately. The savings in time and travel expenses alone will be a tremendous benefit in a young artist’s life.

Veda Kaplinsky, TCU piano faculty member and head of piano at The Juilliard School in New York City, will teach private lessons and masterclasses to TCU students using the same technology.

Families of students who play in campus music ensembles will be able to watch selected performances live on the Web from their home computers, even if they live across the country or half-way around the world. “Our reach here at TCU is so international, that offering this means of seeing their children in a college setting becomes a priceless connection to have with these people,” says Feghali, who was key in gathering the resources to make Internet2 collaboration and Webcasting a reality at TCU’s School of Music.


Media contact:
Sandy Record
Internal communications manager
817-257-5060
s.record@tcu.edu