Page 105 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

They played together in lockdown, charming concert-starved audiences with their

live streamed performances, #UriPosteJukeBox. At home with their baby son,

Tico, they still seem astonished by how popular these gigs were.

Urioste, 36, from Philadelphia, and Poster, 41, from London, met as members of

the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. After marrying in 2019, they
planned a cross-continental freelance life until Covid emptied their diaries

overnight.

They amused themselves by asking people on social media for song requests. They

didn’t expect their question to be so popular. The duo performed one request each

day, from Brahms to Baby Shark.

“We wanted to treat everything as equal, putting as much care into a Sam Cooke

song as into a Beethoven sonata,” Urioste says. Their Jukebox Album, based on the
project, won a BBC Music Magazine award.

Their lives changed again last August when Tico was born. “I’ve learnt to do

everything with one hand, from emailing to eating,” Urioste says.

However, the childcare challenges that face freelance performers are more serious;

the couple say that what systems exist cannot accommodate such schedules. For

the Aldeburgh Festival this month, Urioste’s mother has travelled from
Philadelphia to mind Tico while his mum and dad are on stage. “I’m in awe of

other parents,” she says.

The pair admit to sometimes getting on each other’s nerves. “Our relationship

started off on different continents,” Urioste says “We were worried in lockdown:

we weren’t used to always being in the same place.” Yet Poster says: “The music

helps heal tensions. You might have had a stressful day with a crying child, but the

music can put that to rest.”