Dear Students,
Thank you very much for your patience during these uncertain and stressful times! After much discussion with UBC and here at the School of Music, I’m pleased to be able to provide more clarity on the upcoming school year.
Beginning in Term 1 of the Winter Session, the School of Music will indeed be able to offer a wide range of online and in-person courses, as well as hybrid courses that offer a mix of online and optional in-person instruction. Please check your SSC for your open registration date.
For Music students who wish to attend all of their courses online, you will be able to study full-time with:
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Individual studio lessons fully online;
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Music Theory, Music History, and Aural Skills courses, as well as non-Music electives online.
Where certain required courses are only available in-person, you will have the option of taking a fully online substitute. The School of Music will provide both general and individualized guidance on these substitute courses.
For Music students who would like to have some face-to-face instruction, you will have the additional option of taking:
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Individual studio lessons that combine in-person and online instruction;
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Ensemble courses that will be offered in a modified, socially distanced format to ensure the safety of students and faculty.
These in-person lessons and courses will be offered in addition to the full complement of online courses, to give you maximum flexibility as you continue your full-time studies.
Like face-to-face courses, some fully online courses will have set times when all students attend by video conference. Others may be completely asynchronous, in which case students will be able to view the video lesson at a time of their choosing.
Regardless of whether an online course will be structured to provide synchronous versus asynchronous content delivery, the regularly scheduled course times remain active in the system for two main reasons: it is important that students allocate the appropriate amount of time to each of their courses, and it is likewise important that students are available for synchronous content delivery should that be a required component of the course. Each of your instructors will, in the following weeks, communicate details regarding content delivery method and student participation requirements for each course.
Please direct any questions to your academic advisor, Robert Ablenas, at music.advisor@ubc.ca.
In the meantime, we recognize that you will have many pressing questions about returning to school and what our new normal will look like. Please make sure to have a look at the frequently asked questions below.
We’re very excited to see you in September!
Pat
Dr. T. Patrick Carrabré
Director and Professor of Composition
UBC School of Music
Frequently Asked Questions
How many students will be admitted to in-person classes? What will larger and smaller classes look like in this new reality?
Rooms are expected to be at 20% capacity to allow for social distancing. Because safe social distancing guidelines differ by instrument (and for voices), we are exploring the option of holding in-person classes in larger spaces. Ensemble directors are planning repertoire so that rehearsals will focus on sectional activities and chamber groupings where the maximum number of students attending in-person would be 15 in Term 1.
Many students depend on the School’s practice rooms as their only available practice space. How will the COVID-19 restrictions affect these spaces as well as the overall access students have to the Music Building?
Use of our practice spaces will be limited by the provincial and university rules for occupancy and cleaning. So we will be assigning practice rooms to give first priority to students who can’t practice anywhere else and who are preparing for required recitals. If you have no other option except to practice on campus, you will be allocated to one specific practice room for no more than a maximum number of hours per day. Use of the room will be the responsibility of the students assigned to that room.
What performance venues will be open on campus? Will live audiences be allowed to attend student and faculty performances?
We’re looking at several different options at the moment. For Term 1, performances will most likely be given without a live audience present — or perhaps with a small, socially distanced cohort of other students and supporters.
However, we will continue to present a lively, wide-ranging season of concerts by students, faculty, and guests. In-person audiences or not, many of these performances will be streamed live to audiences at home.
We’re hopeful that restrictions can be further lifted in Term 2.
Will COVID-19 affect the availability of scholarships and other student funding?
At this point, we do not know of any changes in scholarship or other student funding. In fact, UBC is offering additional bursaries to domestic students as part of COVID-19 recovery initiatives, which you can read about here. General information about housing and financial supports can be found here and here.
How soon will classes return to normal?
Soon, we hope! When provincial health authorities tell us it’s safe to move all classes back to campus, we’ll do so as quickly as possible. The decision about whether Term 2 (Jan–April) courses will be online or in-person will be made at a later date. UBC will continue to prioritize the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff when it’s time to make that choice.
When I’m registering for my classes, how will I know whether a course is fully online, or whether there is a face-to-face component?
For Term 1 and full year courses, only courses with a face-to-face component still have a location listed. For fully online courses, the location has been removed.
