March 31, 2020

Lockdown Blog 10: Music under Siege

Hi everyone!

Go wash your hands, then carry on reading.

The other day I was idling through my iPad photos, and found this beauty...

Though it's not going to win any photography prizes, it did remind me of one of my favourite concerts last year. This was our dressing room in the tersely named Sankt-Peterburgskaya Gosudarstvennaya Akademicheskaya Filarmoniya Im. D.d. Shostakovicha.

St Petersburg is an awesome city. It's situated on the coast, in a large bay, overlooking northern Europe, and the Gulf of Finland. Architecturally it was inspired by Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and many more of Europe's finest cities. It's always been a huge melting pot of cultures, and contains Hermitage; the second largest art museum in the world. (I went - it's phenomenal)

Over the course of its history St Petersburg has had more names than Cheryl Cole, as the social and political situations changed again and again in Russia.

During World War II it was going through it's "Leningrad" phase. Between 1941 and 1944 it was under siege from the Nazis. During this eye-wateringly long blockade, Dmitri Shostakovich composed his 7th symphony. I don't want to give away the story, but I highly recommend watching the documentary below. It's quite incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOkBEqtGUI8

So it turned out that our amazing dressing room in Russia, was actually in a venue with an incredible history. One where the urge and drive for togetherness was galvanised through music. I felt so lucky to perform on that same stage as those events; I've been a Shostakovich fan ever since becoming an angsty teenager.

Back to the realities of Coronavirus now.

An update on Rosie, and her online teaching: they're doing a School Concert on Friday! Online, and open-mic night style. I can hear them next door doing their technical sound checks with her. It's going to be a great show!

I'm looking forward to working with the Stay At Home Choir over the next week. Come join the fun! https://twitter.com/stayathomechoir

Stay safe, keep singing.

Nx