By Ava Turner
Elm Staff Writer
Washington College’s Musician’s Union host online meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Musician’s Union is a club at WC that provides a community for all types of music lovers on campus to bond with other like-minded people.
The club has three branches of organization: community service, a jam band, and a showcase committee.
The community service branch focuses on community outreach such as music therapy activities at Heron Point. The jam band branch spends their time on practicing tunes for performance. The showcase committee is responsible for creating a finalized semester performance.
The president of the Musician’s Union, senior Berkleigh Fadden, said the club is a “family of WC musicians … [with a goal] to provide resources for musicians on campus to learn and grow to enhance their music skills.”
Fadden joined in her freshman year and became president of the club by the end of that same year. In her reign, she has restructured the executive board to have added positions for leadership and representation.
Fadden has created positions for social chair, treasurer, and a branch leader for each of the three branches of the organization.
Senior Danny Palmatary is responsible for leading the jam band branch. Palmatary also serves as the vice president of the Musician’s Union.
Palmatary said that the club has a desire to “really start a bigger dialogue about how music makes all our lives better.” Palmatary continues this notion by expressing the use of “music as a unifying tool” to bring communities together.
Senior William Reid became the showcase coordinator during his junior year where he claims to have found interest in “organizing things and helping people shine … [by giving them] a chance to show their talent.”
Reid said the goals of Musician’s Union are “just to foster a love of music” in members and let people “experience a wide breath of music.”
Senior Sarah Bowden has been a member of the club since her freshman year, when her friend invited her to join.
Bowden said the club’s purpose is to “foster a sense of community among musicians at WC.”
Bowden said that students do not have to major or minor in music to join, all one needs is a passion for the craft.
“It’s an organization for those who enjoy making music one way or another,” Bowden said.
With the implementation of virtual learning due to COVID-19, Musician’s Union has had to adapt to an online stage.
Palmatary said the online transition has made it “weird [to try] to do music at any capacity.”
However, Fadden said “[the members] still have [their] spark,” so meetings have been a regular occurrence. Although there is less focus on the playing of music there is more focus being placed on topical discussions portraying to music.
Another big change for members is the logistics of the semester showcase. According to Fadden, Musician’s Union holds an agreement that for every semester, with no exception, the showcase must go on, so for this semester the showcase will be most likely done through a collaborative recording.
As of now, the unofficial date of the showcase is Nov. 20. However, this is still undergoing approval, so dates and logistics are subject to change. For updates on the showcase visit the Musician’s Union Instagram page @wac_musiciansunion