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Concert halls are empty. Summer festivals are canceled. If French horn performance is not only your passion, but your job, like it is for CU Boulder College of Music professor Michael Thornton, playing to an empty armchair gets boring pretty fast.听

To compensate, Thornton and some of the CU Horn Studio took their classical musical chops to the modern world of social media. They pulled inspiration from the wildly popular platform TikTok, which often showcases musical remixes and signature dances.

The studio鈥檚 video features CU Boulder students and faculty, Colorado Symphony Orchestra members, kids and even a golden retriever performing dance moves to their rendition of "Hunter鈥檚 Chorus" from the Opera Der Freischutz.听

For Thornton, TikTok-style choreography wasn鈥檛 a foreign concept.

With two daughters, ages 11听and 14, Thornton was intimately familiar with the app鈥檚 signature dance style and even became an active participant in his daughters鈥� videos.听

鈥淚 learned three of the really popular TikTok dances,鈥� Thornton said. 鈥淢ost of the time, my job is to do them really badly, and they just laugh at me while it鈥檚 happening."

COVID-19 in the musical world

When he鈥檚 not moonlighting as an unlikely TikTok star, Thornton teaches horn at CU Boulder and serves as principal horn of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra鈥攑ositions he鈥檚 held concurrently for over 20 years.听

But never once has Thornton faced a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, which cancelled or postponed nearly every orchestral performance in the nation and forced professors to adapt their lesson plans for remote learning.听

鈥淲hen the pandemic hit, my first response was to ask, 鈥楬ow do we do meaningful things in this virtual space?鈥欌�� Thornton said.听

So in the spirit of social distancing, Thornton and his colleagues performed a horn rendition of "Don鈥檛 Stand So Close to Me" by The Police and published the video on the Colorado Symphony鈥檚 and 听pages.听

The video went viral and The Police even posted the video on their .听

The initial success prompted Thornton to enlist his students to participate in new videos. 听

鈥淲e felt it was important to show our students that we weren鈥檛 afraid to take risks in the available environment and that they should do the same,鈥� Thornton said. 听鈥淎rt doesn鈥檛 stop because one platform isn鈥檛 available. You have to find the next platform.鈥�

TikTok for non-teenagers

Although TikTok typically caters to young adults aged 16-24, Thornton saw the platform鈥檚 potential for a wider audience.听

鈥淥ur demographics are probably the parents and grandparents of TikTok kids, but they may know what the app is because their kids have been doing it,鈥� Thornton said.听

In contrast to Thornton鈥檚 previous videos, which featured horn renditions of modern songs, he chose a classical opera piece for this project.听

鈥淲e thought we鈥檇 go the exact opposite direction of most web videos to show that classical music is so cool in its natural form that it can even be used in a TikTok-style video.鈥�

A group effort

Thornton sent sheet music for "Hunter鈥檚 Chorus" to participating students and faculty, while his daughters got to work on the choreography. They even created an instructional video so participants could easily learn the dance.听

For rising senior Katelyn Wojniak, a French horn player pursuing a degree in music education, the project presented as a unique opportunity.听

鈥淏ecause I鈥檓 on TikTok all the time watching videos, it seemed like something fun to do,鈥� Wojniak said. 鈥淚 thought it was a great way to reach out to an audience we normally wouldn鈥檛 reach out to.鈥�

After roughly two weeks of recording, collecting and editing clips, the masterpiece was complete.听

Although it was not actually posted on the TikTok platform, the video was published on the College of Music鈥檚听.听

Rightful recognition听

Thornton submitted the video for the Center of Arts & Humanities Shelter-in-Place microgrant鈥攁n award that recognizes art projects that went above and beyond to engage students amid remote learning.听

Of the 144 projects submitted across campus, the Horn Studio鈥檚 video won.听

鈥淲hat that says to me, and what I appreciate so much, is that recognition that what we鈥檙e doing is viable and important during this time,鈥� Thornton said.听

For students like Wojniak, who hope to teach music to future generations, the recognition demonstrated the importance of exploring new mediums.听

鈥淚 can definitely see myself creating videos like this with my students, I think it would be a great educational resource,鈥� Wojniak said.听

But Thornton doesn鈥檛 plan on stopping there.听

鈥淎s a studio, we are going to keep putting out content, keep trying to connect with people and create meaningful art.鈥澨�