In a new diary entry for Adopt a Composer 2019/20, Laura Shipsey recounts how her composition for City of Bristol Brass Band took a different turn in the wake of Covid.
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The Creative Lives Awards - formerly the Epic Awards - are an annual celebration of the achievements of voluntary and community-led creativity. These awards are particularly popular among our membership, with many leisure-time music groups having been nominated and won prizes over the years!
Jen Beardsmore, secretary of Brewood Singers, outlines the steps her group took to make a safe return to in-person music making.
Now that the government has lifted the majority of lockdown restrictions, some music groups are starting to think about how to keep going and ensure that their members stay engaged. To help support our member groups with these concerns, we have pulled together a list of some of our relevant services.
Many of you will know only too well that with no notice choirs were restricted from meeting indoors in groups of more than six in England from 17 May, when other kinds of music groups were able to convene in whatever number their venue could accommodate with social distancing of 2 metres.
Following the government announcement on 12 July, England will move to step 4 of the roadmap on 19 July when most restrictions will be lifted.
As of 13 July, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have not updated their guidance to reflect the move to step 4, however we expect that they will before 19 July. Following Secretary of State Oliver Dowden’s announcement on 6 July, we expect that as of 19 July non-professional music groups will be able to:
All four nations of the UK are starting to open up again after lockdown, each with a different roadmap and timeline.
Throughout May and June leisure-time music groups can expect to be rehearsing - and even performing - outdoors and in some cases indoors across the UK. However these routes out of lockdown are provisional only, with risk assessments and mitigations attached to each stage.
Making Music’s free coronavirus guidance tool reflects what the latest rules mean for leisure-time music groups in each of the four nations of the UK.
This consultation by the Home Office on a proposed ‘Martyn’s law’ – named after one of the victims of the Manchester Arena attack – would apply across all four nations of the UK and mean that any venue with a capacity of 100+ would have to assess the risk of terrorist threat in their locality and implement appropriate mitigating measures.
Many choirs and singing groups think the new rule of only six singers indoors is unjustified, so Making Music has been working with its partner organisations in Singing Network UK (SNUK) to shape a response to government, and to help all choir singers to play their part in this campaign
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) updated its Performing Arts Guidance with regard to step 3 of the England roadmap on 18 May.
The government is currently consulting on potential new legislation, the Protect Duty, which is about making publicly accessible buildings, and those who operate them, legally bound to assess and mitigate potential risks from terrorism.
The intention is to make the public realm safer and to prevent tragedies like the Manchester Arena attack. It is therefore intended to help the public feel safer when they attend events or activity in publicly accessible buildings and spaces.