HOW are your VE Day 75th anniversary celebrations going on this beautifully sunny May holiday?
Should you be in need of musical accompaniment, York Musical Theatre Company members are on hand through the day with a rolling programme of 1940s’ songs on the company’s Facebook page.
Familiar Forties’ favourites have been recorded for the occasion by Jessa Liversidge (When The Lights Go On Again); Eleanor Leaper (From The Andrews Sisters…to The Eleanor Sisters! Bei Mir Bist Du Schon!); Flo Taylor (Lili Marlene) ; Marlena Kelli (a Rita Hayworth tribute) and Matthew Ainsworth (the ballad I’ll Be Seeing You, accompanied by Jessica Douglas).
Look out too for a heap of photographic memories from York Musical Theatre Company’s When The Lights Go On Again performances.
Go to facebook.com/yorkmusicaltheatrecompany. Make sure to check out Jessa Liversidge’s Facebook page too; she sang plenty more 1940s’ songs live from midday today as part of the VE Day 1940s Performers Extravaganza series of concerts from living rooms. You can still hear her performance at facebook.com/Jessasongsfromtheheart/.
YORK Music Hub is responding to the Covid-19 lockdown by launching an
online sharing site, #YMHShare.
The idea is to build an online forum featuring music making and
creativity by the young people of York, celebrating the fantastic talent within
the city.
The site has been put together by Squeegee Design, the York web design
company based at Lancaster House, James Nicolson Link, and is monitored and updated regularly with content sent in from
families, individuals and groups.
“The #YMHShare initiative is for anyone who had a concert cancelled, a
festival pulled, an exam postponed or indeed anyone who’s using this time to
work on being musical,” says Molly Newton, York Music Hub’s strategic manager.
“So much hard work has gone into school productions, concerts and
all kinds of events, and #YMHShare offers a virtual alternative. We’ve been overwhelmed
by the response so far, as many of York’s young musicians have uploaded digital
performances and video-link collaborations, and groups have taken this
opportunity to showcase previous triumphs in absence of planned concerts.”
York Music Hub had two major events cancelled as a result of the
Coronavirus pandemic: the Schools Choral Festival in March and the upcoming city-wide
showcase Hubfest2020, now in its second year.
“The Schools Choral Festival usually takes place at the University of York in March,” says assistant strategic manager Craig Brown. “This year would have seen nine primary and five secondary schools perform.
“Hubfest2020 would have built on the success of the inaugural festival last year, featuring 15 primary and eight secondary schools. The festival is a showcase of all youth music within the city; last year’s festival attracted more than 1,000 young people to make music as part of the event.”
The hub’s response to 2020’s cancellations has been to curate the hard
work in a virtual space, as young people, families, groups of friends and
bespoke online collaborators come together for this initiative, drawing on the
many providers and musicians in a “central area of celebration”. Cue #YMHShare,
a sharing platform for a “whole host of music making from any and all young
people in and around York”, aged five to 21.
“From next Monday (April 20), when
school term would be restarting, we’re launching YMH Online Learning,” says
Molly. “This will be a dedicated section of #YMHShare where downloadable
resources, YouTube live and Zoom music-making sessions will be posted for
anyone to get involved with.”
These sessions will kick off with the York
Music Hub Zoom Choir, led by York singer and entertainer Jessa Liversidge, the ubiquitous
driving force behind so much online singing activity in York and beyond at
present, on Mondays at 2.15pm.
Open to any singer aged eight to 18 -18
from York and the surrounding area, the Zoom Choir offers the chance to connect
with other singers, take part in fun vocal warm-ups to develop your vocal
technique and learn songs in a range of styles: a “fantastic way to wind down
and interact with others in these strange times”.
“I’m hoping to attract young people who are missing the inspiring
feeling of connecting with others through song,” says Jessa. “I can’t wait to
see who signs up for a Monday afternoon, after a day of doing work at home (or
at school); those who would enjoy seeing and hearing other melodious youngsters
on screen. All young singers are welcome, whatever their previous singing
experience.”
Jessa adds: “How the York Music Hub Zoom Choir evolves and what we can
achieve depends very much on who gets involved, and how long the lockdown
continues.
“I have all sorts of fantastic songs planned to work on with the group,
as well as some lag-resistant experiments, and I’m really looking forward to
getting going. After a short, self-taught crash course in Zoom choirs these
past few weeks with my adult groups, I’m raring to go with the young
singers of York.”
Singing For All @TheHub will take place on Fridays at 11am. All are invited to tune in to these lively singing sessions suitable for
all ages, again led by Jessa Liversidge. “We want to get everyone involved and
lift your spirits with songs and singing games, from well-known school assembly
songs, partner songs and rounds to classic pop tunes and even some new songs to
learn,” says Molly. “Tune in every Friday at 11am, live on the York Music Hub
YouTube channel.”
Ukulele Stars tuition will be open to
all ages on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am, with these fun and interactive
YouTube sessions being led by Steven Hawksworth, of Hawkulele fame. No previous
ukulele experience is necessary.
Curriculum-based GCSE/A-level Zoom
music composition sessions for Key Stages 4 and 5 will run throughout the
summer term, led on Wednesdays from April 22 at 11am by York Arts Barge Project
co-founder, workshop leader, teacher and bass player Christian Topman.
These tutorials will be delivered via Zoom but also will be available every week to catch up on via York Music Hub’s YouTube channel. They are aimed at students in Year 9 to 13 who will need to access the Zoom app to join in with the live sessions. They can contact Christian directly at christian@yorkartseducation.org.uk with any composition ideas
Those needing more information regarding the sharing site or any of the online sessions should contact info@yorkmusichub.org.uk.
Summing up the
importance of music-making at this time, Molly says: “It seems to me that music is our salvation. It’s what we turn to in
times of celebration and sadness; it keeps us calm or builds us up, it helps us
relax, escape, endure, survive.
“It’s the medium through which we express and share our feelings. As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music.
“The internet is now flooded with
“virtual” responses to current events: isolation compositions; play-off
challenges; streamed concerts and Broadway shows; balcony performances and
quarantine choirs.”
Molly’s passion for music oozes from her whenever she leads a project or
performance. “I was lucky enough to have hugely
supportive parents and inspiring music teachers in my youth and grew up
believing that anyone can achieve musically, regardless of their perceived
ability or intellect,” she says.
“It’s our fundamental method of
communicating and I’ve been lucky enough over the years to see hundreds of
young people flourish and grow through music-making opportunities.”
Why is music such a good educative
tool, Molly? “I’m going to draw from Plato, who said: ‘I would teach children music,
physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music
and all the arts are the keys to learning’.
“However, regardless of how much music can support the learning of other subjects, music is important in its own right in that it’s a fundamental aspect of all societies.
“Music is a truly collaborative subject, a universal language, and learning it enables a global communication with others that transcends borders and cultures. It’s a subject that teaches creative thinking, discipline, confidence, resilience, patience, perseverance, diligence, achievement and joy, to name but a few!”
In
these strange, alien, disconnected days, Craig has noted our power still to be
creative and musically resilient. “The #YMHShare site has really embodied a public celebration of the arts,”
he says. “Within this feed, we see so much of the appreciation, value and
celebrations of music.
“We speak to many of the city’s instrumental teachers, who are
continuing to give private lessons through video links, and it is clear that
pupils and parents really value the role that music is playing,
offering an escape, opportunity of relaxation, or providing a welcome
challenge.”
Looking ahead to when musicians can
meet up again, how may York
Music Hub celebrate? “We’re already planning a ‘Post-Lockdown’ celebration and
are hoping that we will be able to bring as many schools, providers and young
people together in a truly collaborative and inclusive way,” says Molly.
“Given the uncertainty and challenge
we’re all facing, we’re hoping that when this is all over, we will be able to
bring people together through music and remind ourselves how joyful it feels to
play and sing together.”
Roll on that day. In the meantime, make a home for music at home.
AFTER her Singing For All choir had everyone singing I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing at A Night To Remember at York Barbican, now Jessa Liversidge wants to reach the world to sing online.
The York singer, entertainer and singing group tutor, leader and inspiration
is going virtual in response to these Coronavirus lockdown days.
“Going from running seven different singing groups a week, plus other sporadic ones, to having to cancel them all, I was faced with a big challenge,” says Jessa. “But I’ve been buzzing with ideas to keep people singing and to keep their spirits up in these strange times and I have a lot planned.”
Not only planned but coming to fruition already too. “I held my first
virtual choir session on March 18, mainly Easingwold folks but some extras,
including some singing leaders from all over, who came along to check out a
session from a singer’s perspective,” says Jessa.
“We did it again last night, building an online community choir with people
from Easingwold, Helmsley, York, and even other parts of the country – people who
knew me from elsewhere.”
How does it feel, performing together across the ether in our new social-distancing,
stay-at-home world? “It is, of course, very different to a real in-person
choir, but very uplifting and great fun,” says Jessa. “The good news is that
everything is on screen, so you don’t need to provide the lyrics!
“I’ve had some fantastic feedback from people too; the best quotes being
‘A wonderfully positive hour’ and ‘On a challenging day, when it felt hard to
be bright and cheerful, this was just a perfect end to the day. It was great to
let someone with a really joyful personality take you on a different type of
musical journey, a real sharing of community spirit’”
Jessa intends to run these sessions weekly on Wednesday evenings at 7pm. “People will need to contact me on 07740 596869 or email me at jessaliversidge@googlemail.com to find out how to join,” she advises.
She has started up York Military Wives Choir sessions too online, the
first one being held on March 19 for one of 70 such choirs across the country.
“I’m also setting up some free open-to-anyone sessions, starting with a live stream Singing For All session on YouTube that I held on Monday morning this week at 11am: the time the Easingwold Singing For All usually meets,” Jessa says.
“I’m so worried about some of the group as Singing For All has been a
lifeline to so many, and lots of them are now isolated in more than one way, so
this is important for them.”
Not only Easingwold Singing For All took part this Monday morning. “We had people joining in from their living rooms, again from across the country, and that singing session is now available on You Tube,” says Jessa. “Hundreds of people have watched it already, and we had people joining in as families and even with three generations. Hopefully these sessions will now happen every Monday morning.”
A further Singing For All virtual session will be running on Tuesday mornings at 11am, this one on Zoom, set in motion last Tuesday. To take part in these interactive sessions, you will need to ring or email Jessa.
She hatched one other project, abruptly halted by the Covid-19 lockdown’s
dictum on social distancing, banning gatherings of more than two people. “I was
going to try out some very spread-out, non-contact park sings,” says Jessa.
“Inspired by the Italians singing from their balconies, I thought this
was the nearest we could get to it, but that has had to fall by the wayside.
Instead I’m going to record myself singing outdoors, put that on social media
and then people can sing along to that.”
Anything else still to come, Jessa? “Yes, youth choirs.” Watch this space…and keep watching your space too, two metres apart; you know the drill by now.