Tuesday, May 28, 2013

An Interns First View Performance

By Nicholas Daniluk, Performing Arts Intern



I was excited for Sunday’s performance of Great American Songbook as done by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts as it was the first time I would be truly put to task as the Performance Intern. The first time I would actually be setting up lights, sound, and bar for an act here at View. Load in was scheduled to start sharply at 10am, but was delayed. By around 11am the sound tech from the ALCA had arrived and we began to load in some equipment.

Here at View we have some recently purchased QSC K12 speakers, and Presonus Studiolive soundboard. Excellent equipment for a performance space like Gould Hall. The sound tech had apparently been working several venues which did not have their own audio systems and was very relieved to see not only that he would not be required to unload his own soundboard and speakers. We disconnected channels 1-5 in the sound booth and did a direct input line to his wireless microphones.

As part of my in-office work I have been reading the manual on our Presonus board, and have learned several things. This is a unique system in that it does not have separate frequency gain  knobs for each input channel, but has selection button on each channel which links to a single more expansive chain of adjustment knobs. This gives you more options for each sound input that are clear and easy to read without taking up more space on the board. This whole system is something I have yet to toy with myself, though I was able to instruct the ALCA tech on this feature.

The performance itself was quite stellar. I will admit, I am not the biggest fan of musicals but the performers did such an exceptional job as to even get me to smile and hum along. I particularly enjoyed one young woman’s rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. In addition to the songs, the pianist told the audience about the composers, some history, and humorous anecdotes, which added to the experience and drew the listener deeper into the songs, watching for specific lyric or melody structures which the various composers were known for.

Coming up on June 7, at 7:30om we have the International Jazz Trio, a performance I am more excited for as it will be not only a fantastic opportunity to learn more about running an event, it is also a chance to hear some good tunes.

This has been an excellent first week at the View, and I am looking forward to many more experiences like this.

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