With true creative resilience, many organisations are bouncing back with online activities to keep us going during tis strange lockdown period. This post has been pulled together by Norwich Chamber Music group to give you an easy-access set of links

Although live concerts, as we know them, have been put on hold, you can get ready for a festival of delights– the Wigmore Hall will be presenting a lunchtime concert every weekday in June, played live to an empty house (In full compliance with current guidelines) and relayed via Radio 3.  Recitals will also be available on the Wigmore Hall website and BBC Sounds for the following month.  Perhaps an excuse to sit with a glass of wine and imagine you’re in the concert hall (with extra benefits!).  Please read the article below for further information.  A full programme of artists can be found on the Wigmore Hall website – many of the performers are alumni of the JIC concerts.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/12/glimmer-of-hope-leading-performers-return-to-londons-wigmore-hall

For those of you who enjoy an occasional visit to the world of full orchestral music, American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has created a series of video lectures, liberally illustrated by the San Francisco Symphony, exploring some of the symphonic masterpieces of the repertoire.  The series is called Keeping Score, and it’s well worth a look: https://michaeltilsonthomas.com/keeping-score/

Some of us are thinking regretfully of the cancelled 2020 Glyndebourne festival. But there’s some consolation in their programme of streamed past performances, which begins on Sunday 24^th May.  See here for details:
https://www.glyndebourne.com/openhouse/
Why opera matters, a programme from Glyndebourne by Petroc Trelawny, first broadcast in 2014https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b048bghw
Glyndebourne operas also available on Radio 3.

And here’s a reminder of the range of continuing on-line treats:
An excellent summary of global online resources featuring classical music, opera, theatre and dance is on Bachtrack:
https://bachtrack.com

This Guardian page automatically updates, so you can use the click-through week after week
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/16/classical-music-opera-livestream-at-home-coronavirus?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Great musicians have opened their houses or played in empty concert halls on a daily basis to share their music with audiences around the world.   We particularly enjoyed daily twitter concerts by Igor Levit (see recent New Yorker magazine article about this great pianist, link below).
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/igor-levit-is-like-no-other-pianist?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker
 Igor Levit has now finished his two month run of nightly house concerts on Twitter (52 concerts), but you can still catch up with his wonderful series of mini recitals.

Lockdown listening
Whatever you’re listening to – whether on-line streams, forgotten or unplayed CD from the back of the shelf, recommendations from friends, familiar favourites, new discoveries, Radio 3 – we’d be delighted to hear something about your experience of music under lockdown.  Just send us a few sentences (or more if you’re feeling inspired) to share with the members of our community.  We’ll edit, and circulate in the next newsletter.  Think of it as an ongoing concert-interval conversation!

For now, we hope you’re all keeping well, enjoy the sunshine and we look forward to seeing you at the John innes centre for teh next season

Peter Lawson
Chairman

Norwich Chamber Music