Page 351 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

5 July 2021

NHS staff perform ‘thank you’ piece

composed by six-year-old boy

This article is more than 1 month old
Pandemia written for a string quartet by Apollo Premadasa as tribute to
health workers

The piece by Apollo Premadasa (centre) was performed by four Barts Health medical staff from
Newham hospital and the Royal London hospital. Photograph: Handout

Lucy Campbell

A London hospital has celebrated the NHS’s 73rd birthday with a special performance
of a new piece of classical music composed by a six-year-old boy in tribute to health
workers and scientists.

Apollo Premadasa first emailed St Bart’s hospital in the City of London last year during
the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to tell them he had written the piece, Pandemia, as
a “thank you” to health workers everywhere.