Arts&Entertainment
CONCERTS IN THE WEST GOES ONLINE
with 18 specially pre-recorded classical concerts starting in August
D
espite the restrictions imposed by Covid-19, classical music charity Concerts in the West is delighted to be in a position to invite its audiences to enjoy some wonderful classical music online in 18 unique pre-recorded concerts, giving people a taste of future live concerts. The online concerts feature a fantastic line-up of top class musicians, including those who were due to play for Concerts in the West audiences this year, had not the pandemic sadly forced their cancellation, as well as those who have been invited to play in 2021 and 2022. All these musicians have made a tremendous effort to perform together and record their music especially for Concerts in the West’s exciting series of virtual concerts. A short video explaining why Concerts in the West decided to create its Online Series can be viewed on You Tube: https://youtu.be/Py8y_9QvqGs Ranging in length from 30-45 minutes, the performances can be viewed from 20 August to 22 October 2020 - for one month from the date of transmission - on Facebook, YouTube and www. concertsinthewest.org.uk Concerts in the West’s website: www. concertsinthewest.org - go to videos, the concert videos will be available on the date advertised You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCesxFzxz-ooM3gnLB7hZCJg?view_as=subscriber Facebook: www.facebook.com/ConcertsintheWest Catherine Maddocks, the founder and director of Concerts in the West, has been working hard throughout lockdown organising the digital concert series, as well as rebooking this year’s musicians to play in 2021 and even in 2022. So audiences will still have plenty of live performances to look forward to. Catherine remains positive about future concerts, saying: “It is wonderful to be able to start thinking ahead and we can’t wait to welcome the musicians and
our audiences back again to our quirky and individual venues. In the meantime, we hope people enjoy our online series, which is being funded from our own resources. We aren’t selling tickets, so it would be lovely if our audiences could donate to support us and the musicians.” Details of how to donate can be found on the Concerts in the West website: https://www. concertsinthewest.org/page/donations/63/ Catherine is passionate about keeping the classical music concerts going despite the difficulties caused by Covid-19: “Shock, sadness and fear clutched at everyone in March 2020. Gradually we adapted to the life we were being asked to live. For many, the thought that live music would disappear from our lives was appalling and so we have been working on what to do about it. “As we gradually came to realise that live venue performances in the UK were going to take some time to get going again we had to make the decision to cancel 2020 and start again in March 2021. We are optimistic that we will be able to. “In the meantime we want to keep music alive for our audiences and have therefore decided to create an online series, which will run over several weeks in the late summer and early Autumn. Riccardo Pes has been helping us with this, particularly on the technical side. He organised the Andrà tutto bene Festival early in the lockdown so is very active and knowledgeable in this field. “We are delighted that a lovely group of musicians has agreed to take part. They have worked hard to find venues to work in safely and have only recently managed to get together under the Government guidelines.” Riccardo Pes, Technical Director, said: “It is thanks to organisations like Concert in the West that the music is surviving during this unprecedented time.”
