Students in a University of Delaware music class have contributed their talents to videos that will showcase services located at UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus.

The campus houses the College of Health Sciences’ STAR Health complex, which features comprehensive health clinics that are open to the public, as well as laboratory space for researchers and students.

At the start of spring semester, the honors section of Harmony I decided on the class project as a way to help raise awareness about the resources available through STAR Health. The class was taught by Daniel Stevens, assistant professor in the Department of Music.

University Media Services was creating videos about some of the clinics, and the music students offered to contribute a sound track.

To get ideas for the sound they wanted, students watched sample promotional videos and met with representatives from STAR and with Andrew Brett of Media Services, who was directing the video. After the class created a few selections, they sent them to Brett for review.

“Our compositions had to be simple, so as not to take away from the message of the video, yet they had to portray feelings of hope, empowerment and ease,” said Victoria Albanese, a student who worked on the project.

Brett chose a composition by student Alexander Sallade, for marimba, flute, violin and cello.

The class then worked to fine-tune the piece and enlisted volunteers to play and record the music.

Brett said the music has been incorporated into a video for the Delaware Physical Therapy Clinic at STAR, which can be viewed here. The students’ work will also be featured in videos now in production for the Nurse Managed Primary Care Center and the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.

“Through doing this project, [we] have gained valuable experience in working with actual clients, composing music and working as a team,” student Ben Rossman said.

Stevens said the students “rose to the challenge” when given an opportunity to make a difference in their community.

“They took charge of this project from start to finish, and in the process learned a lot about the relevance of their learning to solving real-world problems,” he said. “I could not be more proud of them.”