Page 10 - Resurrezione Coverage Book

managers which at times can be negative. I have been playing with The
English Concert as principal viola since 2007, so when I joined as chief
executive, I knew the group well, its people, our audience and supporters. I
have continued performing alongside my management career, and I think that
being on stage with my colleagues has allowed me to forge a more trusting
relationship with them than would otherwise have been possible.

Sometimes, they will disagree with me, it’s only natural, but I would like to
think that fundamentally, they understand more readily that I have their best
interests at heart and that I am doing my best for the success of The English
Concert as a whole. This has been particularly important in the context of
what we have all lived through since March last year.

There has been so much upheaval for all of us working in the performing arts.
Working in the current environment has been a constant battle, hours of
planning and coming up with contingency plans, finding out that the
contingency plans were not even close to meet our worst expectations,
replanning again and finally, sometimes, being able to come above the parapet
and present some work.

When I joined in as Chief Executive, I wanted to ensure the live performances
that were reaching thousands of people on tour remained alive for longer, and
those that could not make it to the concert hall could experience some of the
magic and put in place a strategy to record our Handel operas (either in video
or commercial recording).

The English Concert’s recording of Handel’s Rodelinda featuring Iestyn Davies,
who in this video introduces the character he plays in ‘Who is Bertarido?’
In March 2019, we should have toured Handel’s Rodelinda to the USA, Europe,
and the UK, but it could not be, so I am particularly pleased we could rescue
the recording plans, which will see the light of day later this month.

Last month we were meant to tour and record Handel’s Tamerlano. All
performances we had planned were cancelled one by one, but I kept pushing
to ensure the scheduled recording could happen. Unfortunately, strict
quarantine rules for non-UK based artists meant some of our soloists were
unable to join us, and with one of them contracting the virus just before we
were about to start, the project could not move forward.

What could we do? We owed it to our musicians to support them financially
and maintain our sense of purpose, but equally to our audience and to our
donors who had very generously supported our plans. Earlier in March, Lady
Linda Davies from the KT Wong Foundation had approached us to film
Handel’s La Resurrezione for Sky Arts. There was something especially
poignant about recording a piece of music that spoke of resurrection after the
performing arts had experienced such a devastating loss.