Tag Archives: lockdown

Going digital

It’s been a busy period here in the Music department; on top of the usual online rehearsals and coaching sessions that have been running throughout the term, we’ve recently started filming in order to bring you some online programming during the current lockdown and over the remainder of this term.

Last week, Your Loyal Correspondent was busy recording some weird and wonderful pieces on the stage of the Gulbenkian theatre for an event combining music and landscape photography and a bonkers piece for piano and digital delay unit; it promises to be quite something…

This week, we’ve also been filming for a lockdown presentation of the Cellular Dynamics project, combining high-resolution photography and film from cutting-edge research from the School of Biosciences with live piano music, with Professor Dan Lloyd and a sequence of music by Debussy, Philip Glass, Tarik O’Regan and John Cage.

Today and next week, we’re also filming some of the University Music Performance Scholars and Award Holders performing individually, and we’ve also formed a new department ensemble, the Almas Ensemble, bringing together some of the visiting music staff, to film a performance including seasonal Baroque music by Vivaldi and Corelli.

Thanks to the hard-working technicians, Thomas and Luke; it’s all coming your way over the next month, as we work to provide a programme of digital content to engage and entertain you – stay tuned as the projects unfold…

Are the performing arts more accessible in lockdown? A reflection on accessing live music in lockdown, shielding and solitude.

As part of our occasional guest series, a reflection on the arts in lockdown by Dr Francesca Bernardi, RSA Fellow and independent researcher into children’s rights, dis/abilities and the arts.


Sometimes people like to use the phrase ‘wearing different hats’ as an expression of versatility, in different contexts or in a single space that requires one to assume different guises to get through the day (at the very least). I suppose that might be a good way to start a brief introduction of my own different hats. I would describe my self as a children’s rights and dis/ability activist, but then feel I am neglecting the very medium of such activism: the arts, visual and performing.

Francesca Bernardi

In this time of crisis I have worn a new guise which has been with me always (unnoticed) and has positioned me in a place of vulnerability and, consequently, I am shielding. Responding to this heightened vulnerable self, has caused me to look at personal ideas, hopes and ambitions in a very different light. I have also been hit financially by the changing shape of academia and my potential role within that space. An added sense of displacement comes from my inability to return to Italy (my home) where I would like to continue my research with communities that are seldom heard, in research, the media and their own social spheres.

Continue reading Are the performing arts more accessible in lockdown? A reflection on accessing live music in lockdown, shielding and solitude.

Rewriting the dimensions of the world: the arts in lockdown and a global audience of one

In the current climate of getting your cultural fix online – music, theatre, dance – I’ve found myself, like many, watching pre-recorded and streamed live performances of musicians and actors from around the world. I’ve written elsewhere of witnessing the courage of cellist and composer Anne Müller’s livestreamed Wohnzimmerkonzert (pictured below); I’ve also watched the troubling Frankenstein from the National Theatre, Alan Bennett’s The Madness of George III from the Nottingham Playhouse, and last night’s broadcast of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa from Glyndebourne, a compelling blend of Erwartung, Bluebeard’s Castle and the more menacing waltzes of Ravel.

Continue reading Rewriting the dimensions of the world: the arts in lockdown and a global audience of one

Different risks for the New Normal: a concert by Anne Müller

In an era when musicians (and in fact artists generally) are adapting to the current climate by presenting and performing online, I had the fortune recently to watch a streamed Wohnzimmer performance by cellist, composer and music-and-electronics exponent, Anne Müller.

Continue reading Different risks for the New Normal: a concert by Anne Müller

Lockdown Lunchtime Concert with University Music Scholars

In these unusual times, we’re pleased to present a ‘virtual’ Music Scholars’ Lunchtime Concert as part of a re-imagined Summer Music Week.

The concert featured several Music Performance Scholars and Award Holders, who had each filmed themselves performing in isolation from their homes around the country. From Scottish piping to French art-song, nimble woodwind pieces and a song from Disney’s Prince of Egypt, a novel way of highlighting just some of the musicians that take part in our extra-curricular music-making.

With thanks to all the performers (and their accompanists!) who took part.