School of Music Forges Partnerships in Costa Rica

The NIU School of Music recently began partnerships with two universities in Costa Rica.  Working with La UNED, Universidad Nactional de Educatión a Distancia, and The Instituto Nacional de Música, School of Music Director Paul Bauer, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts Rich Holly, School of Music Professor Robert Chappell, and School of Music Technician Dan Nichols traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica March 11 to 16 and demonstrated the use of Internet2 technology to administrators, faculty, and staff of the two institutions. 

The culmination of the weeks' meetings and events was a real-time, high-definition master class presented through Internet2 technology.  Professor Rodrigo Villanueva, from the School of Music in DeKalb appeared on a 50 inch monitor in San Jose and provided instruction to an audience of more than 20 students from Instituto Nacional de Música. The master class was hosted at a studio in the headquarters of La UNED. 

The School of Music brought five backpacks to San Jose, each filled with one laptop, two microphones, a small speaker bar, and various cables in order to demonstrate how inexpensively it is possible to access Internet2 technology.  At the conclusion of their visit, the School of Music left one of the backpacks with Instituto Nacional de Música so the School of Music can continue to provide master classes and private lessons to students there.