BROOKINGS – About 80 Brookings college and high school choir students had good reason to sing at the end of April when they got the chance to film a new PBS special to be used as part of its annual funding drive.
Ethan Bortnick is a teenage musical prodigy noted for his skills with the piano, singing and composing. At the young age of 9 years old, he had his own National PBS Concert Special.
His latest, featuring the local musicians, will air nationally sometime in August.
Brookings High School music teacher Denise Perry described a typical Bortnick show as being high-energy with a diverse line-up of music, such as jazz, rock, pop, classical and folk.
When preparing to record a new TV special, “Ethan Bortnick: Generations of Music,” Bortnick’s team picked Sioux Falls the location. South Dakota State University music professor and department head David Reynolds said that this was due to the warm reception he received the last time he played in South Dakota.
Ryan Howlett, the CEO at Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting, extended the invitation to participate to SDSU because of the university’s reputation.
“We were thrilled that they were available and willing to do it,” Howlett said.
The special was filmed at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. In addition to show's 40-piece symphony orchestra, which included several members of SDSU's music faculty, the university's concert choir provided its talents.
More was needed, however; the show needed a large, energized choir to help add to the visual impact of the production and engage viewers. Since the show’s theme was “Generations of Music,” producers didn’t want the choir to be comprised of people of the same age.
“I’m biased in thinking this way, but I thought if there was a way to combine the best university choral program in the region along with Denise Perry’s fine choral program – and it is a really fine program in Brookings High School – we could come up with a wonderful product for them,” Reynolds said.
With that, about 30 Brookings High School concert choir students (mostly juniors and seniors) joined the SDSU concert choir for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“It really was everything from Ethan and the high school kids of Brookings all the way through senior citizens who were playing on stage that day. It was fantastic,” Howlett said.
Every instrument used had a microphone, as did background singers and special guests, such as Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. Perry heard there were as many as 150 audio inputs. At first, she wasn’t sure how well the choir would be heard with so much attention given to capture every sound on stage.
“We were really pleased when you could hear the mix and hear the choir included in that whole thing,” she said.
For both the college students and the high schoolers involved, this happened during a busy time of year, the last week of April. Filming took place on April 26, which was the last week of classes at SDSU.
Because of the short notice, the hustle of late April for upperclassmen and the considerable time commitment of the program, not every high schooler in the concert choir could participate.
“We started practicing the day after we got back from a choir tour to Chicago. The week of our performance was our big production for our jazz department, so many kids spent a lot of hours with me for those two weeks,” Perry said.
Still, the opportunity this presented the students could not be passed up, and no student regrets the hard work they put they into it, Perry said. It allowed them to see firsthand what all goes into a filmed production and what show business can be like.
It meant an intense week of rehearsals, rapid memorization of songs, cameras in their faces that they could not look into, and getting things right the first time around.
“Not looking at the camera was something that was tough for a lot of them. I heard them talking about that,” Reynolds said. “Here comes someone with a camera on their shoulder, they’re right in front of us and you’re not supposed to look.”
And as for memorizing the music, they had the difficult task of memorizing it with about a week-and-a-half’s notice with revisions occasionally made along the way.
“When you’re dealing with professional musicians, you’re really expected to be able to know it and on the spot,” Perry said. “You have to be flexible.”
“I couldn’t have been more proud of how fast our students learned and how seriously they took the job,” Reynolds said.
They had sheet music to learn from and some rehearsal tracks to get a feel for the tempo and other aspects of the songs. Those rehearsal tracks were especially important for the original songs that haven’t been publicly performed yet.
Then there’s the tempo of the work involved, swinging between the high energy singing and patiently waiting for something to do. There was more of an emphasis on the visual aspects of the performance than what the students are typically used to, particularly in portraying emotions and giving a physical performance that would read well on the TV.
It was a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved, and Perry’s thankful that her high school students had the chance to be a part of it thanks to Reynolds.
Howlett lauded the work of the SDSU and BHS students, saying they went above expectations given the short notice. “They were just so strong and exceeded everyone’s expectations and really blew things out of the water. It was fun.”
“It was a lot of work, a lot of hours… I don’t think any of them regret that they did it. It was such a unique thing and when they see themselves on TV in August, that will just reinforce that they’re glad that they put the time and effort into that experience,” Perry said.
At the moment, the recording is in post-production. Produced for PBS’s annual fund drives, it’ll air in across the U.S.
Those drives start Aug. 5 and continue for a week; although not set in stone, Howlett expects to show 58 minutes of music featuring the choir South Dakota Aug. 10.
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
