Fourth year Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Science student Matthew Hollomon has been making the most of studying online, trying each week to join our online choir rehearsals from a more ridiculous location.

Transcript

Matthew Hollomon: I’ll start recording. I’ve got it portrait, is that all right? Or do you want landscape? Landscape, yep, yep. No that’s, alright, that’s alright.

Alex Siegers: Matthew Hollomon is a 4^th year combined Bachelor Music/Bachelor of Science student, majoring in Music Inquiry and Chemistry. He also sings tenor with the Collegium Musicum Choir and is currently participating in the Handel Chorus Online program.

MH: My name is Matthew Hollomon, middle name Sean. I have screwed around with my majors a lot and I’ve jumped between nanoscience, biology, psychology. You name it, I’ve probably, like, given it a red-hot crack. I’m classically trained in music; I play the piano, as you can see. And I also play in the ensemble for choir. I’ve done the choir, for, ooh, three years now, I think?

MH: It’s very small compared to like Music/Education and Music/Arts [degree combinations] and stuff like that. I just don’t see how they meld together I’ll be honest. Like, people ask me how they meld, and I’m like, yeah, there’s music therapy, but then I’m like, I’m not really sure what else. The one thing that kind of like bonds all of us together from music and science, is the question when you meet someone, and you tell them, and they go, “Ooh, that’s an interesting combination!” All the time.

MH: And the Handel Chorus Online? It’s – you can call it a group of people kind of singing and learning the same piece. It’s very hard to call it a choir. I find that, like, when I’m in a choir, like, I’m not a trained singer, I’ve learned through choirs, I’ve learned how to keep pitches by like matching other people around me. And so, being in, by myself, I have my piano to help me with the pitch if I really need it, but actually I’ve had to learn a lot more about how to find the pitch myself and how to find those intervals as opposed to relying on people around me. So it’s become a very independent exercise.

MH: It’s also been quite fun with the locations that I’ve actually done the Handel Chorus Zoom calls. So, I’ve done it in my room a couple - most of the times. So, I’ve also done it in my friend’s backyard, once, when I was at their place and then just couldn’t make it to my place in time. And then, last Wednesday, I was doing house inspections and at that point I was in Newtown, and I was just like, I can’t make it, I’m not going to do it on a bus, so I go to Camperdown Park in Newtown, sit on a bench with my friend, who’s a soprano, and I’m just there, on the Zoom call, just singing in Camperdown Park. And, like, all the dogs are running up to me. All the people are staring at me while I’m singing these really intense masses. And this one kid, he just keeps on kind of like, running up to me, looking at me while I’m singing, and I’m just like, “Yep, this is happening right now, like, I’m doing it.”

MH: It’s just fun really, it’s good fun.