ORANGE COUNTYU, Fla. — UCF Celebrates the Arts is back, after having to be canceled last year due to the pandemic.

The sound of trumpets carries through the air, and with it, a feeling University of Central Florida student performers like Eric Rohwedder say they’ve missed.

“Music is just one of those languages that we can communicate with anybody," said Rohwedder. "It’s one of those arts that really invokes the emotions that we’ve always wanted to express.”

That expression looked and felt a lot different this past year.

This video provided by UCF shows how students pivoted to practicing in parking garages, home studios, kitchens, anywhere they could be socially distanced.

 “Some of the rehearsal spaces that we’ve had make it a little bit more difficult, since we’re used to our small class rooms and practice rooms," said Rohwedder.

 Now, the large, outdoor socially distanced Front Yard Festival opens the curtains for continuing quartets, like this one.

“It allowed us to save our celebration this year," said Michael Wainstein, Director of the UCF School of Performing Arts. "Last year we had to cancel it. So we’ve just made a major U-turn, and reconfigured our whole thought process to align with the situation in hand.”

The accommodations even created a perfect harmony for a large choir.

 “We had to build additional staging on the front of the Doctor Phillips stage, so we could fit 120 people socially distanced and 6 feet apart on a grand stage," said Wainstein.

Rohwedder says it’s been tough, when it felt like the pandemic brought the arts to a screeching halt. but he has high hopes for a return to the way it was before, and for the way it’s become now.

 “We will definitely take a different perspective on how we perform, and I think we’ve gotten a lot better in performing in situations like this, so hopefully we keep performances like this, but hopefully we return to our traditional performing venues." said Rohwedder.

The festival continues through April 10.