Baritone-for-hire David Newman was looking forward to a year of singing gigs.
Then, in March, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, two members of a choir in Washington state died, and dozens more fell ill after their two-hour practice became a super-spreader event.
Concerts were quickly wiped from calendars around the world.
“The piercing irony of having to cancel is that the joy this music brings is what we now as a culture need more than ever,” said an email Newman received from Wisconsin’s Madison Bach Musicians.
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Singing had been the centerpiece of his life. It got him through high school and into Westminster Choir College, a music school in New Jersey, where he majored in vocal performance.
2020 Christmas Recital
I m trying really hard to not be sad that we filmed our entire recital on grid mode.so instead of a beautiful full-picture view of our recital we captured
everything. It s fun, I suppose, that we ll get to watch our audience s reaction (since we couldn t see them from where we were performing) but.it s simply not the finished product I d hoped for.
Luckily we filmed our dress rehearsal this afternoon, so we have that.
I m still not pleased that I m still half in pyjamas (
dress rehearsal, Nancy, come on!) and there were a few other mishaps that we ironed out before the recital (as well as a few that we did
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STEP aside Jack Black, there’s a new School of Rock - and it’s in Wales. A class of nine and 10-year-olds, from Ysgol Bryn Onnen in Varteg near Pontypool, have joined forces with folk rock star Bethan Rhiannon to create a Christmas single which they hope will be a festive favourite. Teacher Bethan Rhiannon is also lead singer of Welsh festival giants, Calan, and - with live gigs put on hold by coronavirus - has temporarily joined staff at Ysgol Bryn Onnen. As the saying goes the show must go on and, in lieu of their cancelled Christmas concert, the Year Five class has written and performed a thank you song - in Welsh - for all the frontline heroes who continue to lead the fight against coronavirus.