SILVER LAKE, Calif. – Making music might be harder in the age of COVID-19, but that is not stopping a group of young students from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. For Eleanor Dalton, a 16-year-old who is studying voice, the school is part of her extended musical family.

“I'm really interested in a lot of the arts, but I feel like music has always kind of been my way of letting out whatever emotion I'm feeling, and I always just have so much fun doing it.”

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To keep this musical community going, students and instructors went virtual and created their own version of David Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity,” a song that is all about isolation and disconnection.

 

 

 

“I just want to be around people again, honestly,” said Eleanor. “I didn't know how much I needed it until it went away.”

Nico Brouwer, another vocal student, says he misses his friends, too, but was excited to have the opportunity to contribute his part of the Bowie song.

“I’ve known most of these people since elementary school, growing up in the choir,” said Nico. “Then, more people trickle in--younger kids, older kids--it becomes like a family and it's really nice.”

Instructor SJ Hasman said it was a lot of work piecing together all the separate parts that the students sent in, but it was a labor of love.

“I missed the kids so terribly,” said Hasman. “I don't think I understood how much I missed them until all the videos started coming back in. I really miss being in the room with them.” 

The music conservatory’s co-founder and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Flea, said hearing the choir’s project made him do what he often does hearing students’ work…

“…which is to weep with joy and oneness and hope and a yearning that humankind can be a beautiful and productive element of the universe,” said Flea. “SJ Hasman, who was our choir director, she did such a great job. It's a beautiful arrangement of the song and, of course, the kids just sang it immaculately, with sincerity and so much heart.”

“Hearing so many unique people from so many different backgrounds all coming together and singing together, it's so comforting to find that unity in the form of music,” said Eleanor.