Page 93 - Virtual Benedetti Sessions Coverage Book

"Something like this (pandemic) is very humbling," Benedetti told the
BBC earlier this month. She said that for the first two weeks of lockdown,
she did not immediately get active online. "Somehow I just couldn't,"
Benedetti said. "Also, I was quite happy with not playing the violin for a
little minute!"

Then she started to see how it could work, to move the Benedetti Sessions
online.

"With the Foundation, we've always accepted that there are only so many
physical workshops of that scale that I could put on per year, and each one
serves hundreds of children, teachers and students," she said. But for year-
round, consistent growth and meaningful impact with these students and
teachers, she always knew that it would be necessary to use more online
technology. "So it didn't take me long to realize that this is a time to make
sure that we get a head start with that, and to make strides -- to be as active
as possible to connect with as many people online to explore all the avenues
through which you can communicate meaningfully with people online."

When Benedetti announced in early May that the Sessions were to go
online, the signups came in fast: over the course of just five days, 7,157
participants signed up from every county of England, every local authority
in Scotland, every local council area of Northern Ireland and 18 of 22
counties of Wales. By now, the Sessions have reached participants in 66
countries, including 41 U.S. states, with ages ranging from 2 to 92 years old.

As with the live sessions, her goal with the Virtual Sessions has been to pack
them with substance "and at the same time have that excitement about that
feeling that we're all in this together - the general vibration that we try to
give to people during the actual workshop," Benedetti said. "How could we
recreate that?"

To that end, the Virtual Benedetti Sessions that have taken place over the
last three weeks have been geared toward string players at a range of levels:
beginners, intermediate and advanced students -- as well as anyone who
wants to bang on a pot or a pan.

What did they do, and how did it work? First everyone picked up their
music on the Benedetti Foundation site, and then they worked on it, with
sessions via noon Facebook Live sessions, Youtube tutorials and Zoom
sectionals. Benedetti conducted many of the Sessions, but she also had
some help, with a team of tutors and ambassadors, as well as guests such as
Nancy Zhou, Elena Urioste, Andrea Gajic, Alina Ibragimova, and Ilya
Gringolts, among many others.

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