2020 - life and music making in the time of a pandemic
I began this year with great intentions to write more regularly about my singing career. Like everyone else my life has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and so here I am in November, writing my first blog of 2020. Unlike so many others I have been fortunate to remain healthy through this time, as has my family, and for that I'm very grateful. Spending so much time with my young children during the spring lockdown was both precious and tiring! Preserving my mental health became a more pressing concern during that time and I found great comfort in getting out into nature as much as possible by walking and running through the woodland and common land near to where I live.
In October it was a very great pleasure to join Solomon's Knot for a concert performance of our Purcell Pageant at the Hamburg Laeiszhalle as part of the early music series 'Das Alte Werk'. We gave two hour-long concerts on the 26 October at 6.30pm and 9pm. Only a few days later, stricter measures were announced in Germany meaning that all concert halls and opera houses would be closed during November. We were especially fortunate therefore to have this chance to make music together. Performing with Solomon's Knot is always special, but it was doubly so this time. All around me I felt a determination to make the absolute most of this precious opportunity. As well as being a tremendously exciting musical experience, the abiding memory which persists for me is of having been in the same space as all those wonderful people, both performers and audience, united by a wish to share in the extraordinary experience of live music making. In a year which has been marked by physical separation and isolation from loved ones, friends and colleagues, that experience of togetherness was deeply moving.
Rehearsing in Hamburg for the Purcell Pageant with Solomon's Knot
