Page 20 - Coverage Book_Aurora Orchestra Autumn 2020

what he might have heard. It’s taking all the confusion that hearing loss adds to your
sense of social distance as the pieces become clouded and confused.”

Of both composers he adds that it’s “astonishing” how they work with hearing loss.

Prom 72: Symphonie Fantastique: performed last year by the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by
Nicholas Collon. Picture: Mark Allan

“I don’t understand how Evelyn Glennie plays percussion as well as she does with
hearing impairment. God knows what it would have been like if Beethoven hadn’t
suffered from that. Those works seem perfect you wouldn’t want to change them.”

The irony that Aurora Orchestra must stay distanced at 2.5metres in different loggias
at the Albert Hall, then can go to the pub together afterwards, isn’t lost on him. Nor is
the fact that continental concert halls have been open for months while ours remain
empty.

“2.5 metre distances are destructive for the art of orchestra playing - you can’t have
many live projects. We are playing outside in Kings Cross because it’s impossible to
play anything that big inside, there will be sounds of life around us which you can’t
avoid in London but we are very excited because there’s something special about a
live audience and for all of us, it’s our first time performing in front of people since
March.”

There are however more concerts this autumn as part of Aurora’s residency at Kings
Place, and an album, Music of the Spheres, just out on Deutsche Grammophon.