Christmas at Duquesne

In March 2020, when the global pandemic made it impossible for our school to present in-person concerts, we immediately went to work with what would become the IEMMA Broadcast Network (IBN). Initially a 24/7 internet radio station featuring audio-only performances of Mary Pappert School of Music students and faculty, we knew the IBN needed to grow to also include video. Based on the success of the radio station and several video recordings made during the pandemic, we made plans to fundraise and purchase a state-of-the-art mobile live streaming system that would allow us to share video of concerts in real time to the families and friends of our students who were not able to be at the concert in-person.

With your help, we reached our initial goal of $50,000 at the end of the 2021–2022 school year, and we purchased the equipment necessary to bring you high quality video streams. In the fall of 2022, we debuted the system with a livestream of David Allen Wehr’s Chopin & Schumann on the Bluff, Concert I: Carnaval to rave reviews. Since then, we have live streamed several more concerts, including the annual Christmas at Duquesne concert, which is regularly watched by viewers from all around the globe.

• Maintain a remote-operated three-camera streaming system, along with the associated equipment and software packages necessary to provide live streams and capture ultra high-definition video for potential future production and publication
• Support the necessary staffing needed to manage live streaming at our concerts and events
• Provide high-definition live feeds of concerts to a worldwide audience, including family and friends of our students who otherwise would not be able to see them perform
• Continue bringing international attention to the Mary Pappert School of Music’s first-rate musical performances.

Now that our system has been implemented, we have a much better understanding of what it takes to put together a successful live stream event, and we want to be able to bring you more! Each one, however, requires a significant amount of preparatory work including (but not limited to) pre-production planning meetings, venue review/scouting, full-screen and lower-third graphics production, and day-of production management needs.

We are fundraising to help defray the costs associated with this work, as well as the maintenance and upkeep of our system.