Student musicians were forced to evacuate and remove personal items from the Zelazo Center this week as UW-Milwaukee prepares to host Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate. The temporary relocation of the instrumental music department is causing rehearsal disruptions, and is placing expensive instruments at risk of costly damage, according to graduate student Amanda Brittain.
“We were disrupted at least 10 times during our three-hour rehearsal on Tuesday,” said Brittain. “People walked by talking loudly. Some people tried to talk to us while we were trying to listen to our director.”
Large ensemble rehearsals are being held in the Union’s second floor study lounge until next week.
“This is a public space with no doors and no privacy,” said Brittain.
The instrumental music department, comprised of orchestras with more than 100 students and bands ranging between 50 to 150 students, were asked to clean out their Zelazo lockers by Feb. 5, or would be subjected to search and seizure by the secret service. Transporting instruments and equipment during the winter season creates opportunities for damage.
“I own about $20,000 worth of instruments and equipment,” said Brittain. “My clarinets are wood and taking them outside for any period of time risks them cracking.”
Other wooden instruments include the oboes, piccolos and bassoons.
“The school has a lot of large, antique instruments and some cost upward of $100,000 that are wood,” said Brittain. “They are currently being stored in the Union, but had to be taken (outside) to get there.”
The Zelazo Center’s practice and storage space is temperature controlled to properly house these delicate instruments. Brittain reached out to External Relations Manager Keri Duce, the event’s manager, to further express her concerns.
“I know there are supposed to be benefits to hosting the debate, monetary and publicity, but honestly, will my department see any of it?”
According to an agreement obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, UWM will receive roughly $50,000 to cover expenses for hosting the debate.
“We’re thrilled PBS selected UWM because it will allow us to showcase our campus to the world,” Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of university relations and communication told the Journal Sentinel.
However, Brittain isn’t buying into the publicity hype.
“Can you tell me, without looking it up, where the Republican debate was held last week? Most people I’ve asked this question have no idea. So tell me again how this helps promote UWM?”
Brittain spends anywhere from three to seven hours practicing, teaching and learning in Zelazo each day. Although she’s not happy about making up this time next week, she’s more concerned about her classmates.
“I know for a fact that this ordeal is making good players who are already considering transferring, consider it more… This sort of thing feels a lot like the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Orchestra’s relocated rehearsal is interrupted by a UWM Mardi Gras band Tuesday in the Union. | Video courtesy of Amanda Brittain.
While the instruments are indeed a potential risk, the part about interruptions during practice… sorry that’s just whining. You’d hope at a collegiate level people could roll with the punches and put up with less than perfect situations for a while, seeing as real life is less than perfect?
Try having a bulldozer come through a conference held in a cubicle in the “real world” and get back to me on how well you deal with “less than perfect” circumstances.
I’m a music major here, and the reason the Orchestra was not in the typical Union rehearsal room is because of the UWM Jazz Ensemble which had a performance in that room. That seems much less invasive now. It’s rather selfish to claim that one orchestra rehearsal trumps a performance of another ensemble. As far as instruments go, they really aren’t at risk. We have fantastic professors here at Peck School of the Arts and they informed us to do what we do with our instruments during this debate week. There is no way they would tell us to do to our instruments what would damage them. Besides, the large expensive equipment such as the percussion equipment is being stored in a safe, and locked location.
In addition, the publicity to the school is great. Our Zelaso center had renovations done to it, which make it look nicer, the school gets 50,000 dollars, and it’s publicity for our music program as well as the university as a whole. Politics are very important, and the fact that there is a major political event, which will air all over the country, is something that the students here should look forward to. We were required to move the 5 octave marimba into the union, but it didn’t fit in the elevator. It had to be carried up the stairs. This particular instrument is approximately $18,000. It would not have been carried up the stairs if there was a large risk of damaging the instrument. In the end, a change of rehearsal location is not a big deal.
As a BFA graduate of UWM and then member of the orchestra at that time, I had to haul my $10,000 string instrument to and from Zelazo twice a week from the DORMS, rain, snow, or sub zero. Guess what? No one cared, and I didn’t whine to the press about it. There was (probably still is) no storage for shoulder-mounted string instruments at Zelazo, and it wouldn’t matter if there was, because we’d still need to take them back to Peck to PRACTICE anyway. Students and professionals have to transport their expensive equipment in less than ideal conditions every day, and somehow everyone survives.
Amanda, quit crying to the paper and deal with the momentary inconvenience; your comments make it appear like the music department is an entitled group of snobs. If you want to be taken seriously as a professional, act like one. It’s disgraceful as an alum to read this kind of garbage.
These debates are important, and a few days of rehearsing in a different space won’t destroy your instrument. Has she never had to walk outside or been inside a cold practice room? This is absurd whining, nothing more. In the past week she’s also made a Facebook post, and that was ridiculed as well. Sounds like someone is looking for more attention.
Whine, whine whine. Somebody is going to get a rude awaking when she hits the real world.