A Note from Peter Bellingham, Chief Executive
Published Monday 15 February 2021
Who could have predicted that ten months on from the first Covid lockdown we would still be working and living under significant restrictions. In November, when I was reassessing our plans, I had every expectation that things would start to feel a bit more positive in the new year. Instead, it seems as if we’ve been set back a few months. The new strain of the virus has clearly had a big impact on all areas of our lives and the arts aren’t exempt from that. Once again, we are now faced with cancelling plans for performances that just three months ago we thought would be likely to go ahead. Realistically, it could well be the autumn before we are able to offer anything that resembles a normal live programme again.
Having dealt with the admin of cancelling or postponing the immediate schedule of events, we will now turn our minds to how we can continue to provide some connection for you, our audience, with Sinfonia Cymru’s players. We are currently consulting with the players for their ideas for digital projects and we will start to produce new material once some of the restrictions have been lifted. Please keep checking our website and our YouTube channel, as we will be adding more material through the following weeks. For those of you who follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, we’ll keep you posted when updates become available.
If you haven’t had the chance to look through the website, there’s lots of information in the ‘backstage’ area – ‘meet the player’ profiles, photo galleries, as well as links to some of our audio and video content. Also, do check out the YouTube channel – you will find extracts from some of our recent Curate performances, the Richard Strauss chamber concert stream from November (available until 19 February) and many other short extracts. I can thoroughly recommend the In Conversation series of chats hosted by Caroline Pether; in the four episodes she talks to conductor Gábor Takács– Nagy, musicians Roberto Ruisi and Simmy Singh, and Board member Simone Willis; every episode contains wonderful insights into the work of the four guests.
Here are some links to get you started:
– one of the pieces from Helen Wilson’s Curate performance from 2019
– the Richard Strauss concert from 2020, featuring Capriccio and Metamorphosen
– Caroline Pether In Conversation with Simmy Singh
I do hope you’ll journey through our website and YouTube channel and, of course, we’d love to know what you think!
Very best wishes
Peter Bellingham, & the Sinfonia Cymru team.