Listening From a Distance

Local music during the pandemic.

• Joe Ulrich
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Joe has been interested in audio and music since he was a kid. What started as a fascination with his parents’ vinyl records and cassette tapes turned into a love of both performing and recording. He grew up in Elizabethtown, Pa. and moved to Pittsburgh in 1999 where he majored in Photography at the University of Pittsburgh.
  
  In 2004, he attended the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences in Tempe, AZ. He returned to Pittsburgh to work at a recording studio.
  
  In 2008, Joe arrived at WITF, where his skills have found a good home as an on-air host, audio engineer and producer of WITF Music. In 2016, Joe earned a National Edward R. Murrow award for Best Use of Sound.

When COVID-19 began to spread rapidly in the U.S., there was an abrupt end to large gatherings. This put an end to public music performances indefinitely. While some musicians immediately took to the web to perform live-streams, others found streaming’s lack of face-to-face interaction unsatisfying.

Listening From a Distance is a collection of interviews with people involved in the local music scene to find out how they’re coping with the pandemic. We hear from April Hartman (Apes of the State), The Nielsen Family Band, Hannah Bingman, Heath Hardin (Olds Sleeper), Leo DiSanto (Vinegar Creek Constituency), Brandon Valentine (Central Pennsylvania Music Hall of Fame) and Stuart Malina, the music director for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. We also get some perspective on why music is so important to humans with music therapist Kristyn Beeman.

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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