Coronavirus may have put a stop to live concerts for now, but Trinity Events is sponsoring a special festive performance by members of Trinity Orchestra, set to be released this Christmas season.
The collaboration has been organised by Siobhán Brady, the events executive for Trinity Development and auditor of Trinity Orchestra for the academic year 2016/2017. Trinity Events is funding the project to ensure that the performance is “of a really high standard”, said Medb Brereton Hurley, the orchestra’s conductor for this academic year, in conversation with The University Times. “The recording will be very professionally done and very festive.”
A group of six commissioned orchestra members will perform Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons (Winter)” for the project. With the recording and filming dates set for mid-December, coronavirus-permitting, the finished video will be streamed by Trinity Events around Christmas time. “It’s really exciting because it’s a proper professional recording and it’s an opportunity to do something together again”, said Hurley, noting her eagerness to work with Trinity Events “as part of their initiative to bring some Christmassy spirit to Trinity”.
This is a welcome opportunity for orchestra members, who usually only find paid work outside of college. “Trinity Orchestra is known for having a lot of very good young musicians who will do cool projects at a lower price than professional musicians”, said Hurley. “We’ll often do things for free, but if someone wants to commission us for a project, they’ll go through our Players Coordinator for everything, from small ensembles to play[ing] at weddings, to other events completely external to Trinity.”
Each year, Trinity Orchestra hosts a winter and a summer concert. For the latter, students are commissioned to arrange a pop setlist which is then played at festivals such as Forbidden Fruit, All Together Now and Electric Picnic. This upcoming collaboration “is fairly similar to that facet of Trinity Orchestra’s function”, Hurley said.
Hurley described the necessary cancellation of this year’s festivals and summer concert as “gut-wrenching”. Instead of planned performances, Hurley said the committee spent the summer figuring out how to move forward. “It’s been very difficult to set up a committee to tackle these issues and then audition everyone during freshers’ week”, she admitted, adding that throughout the fluctuating restrictions “orchestra rehearsals in the traditional sense could not continue and still can’t”. The orchestra’s large rehearsal space on the top floor of Regent’s House remains empty for now.
Despite the expected easing of restrictions, it looks like a winter concert won’t be on the cards this year either. To tackle this and still “create some sense of life and entertainment”, Trinity Orchestra are organising an online festival, set to run in week 12. For this, Hurley said that there will be a week of pre-recorded performances and one harmonious piece created by an editor from a compilation of orchestra members’ home recordings. Hurley also hopes to hold events throughout the week, including a big online concert in collaboration with JazzSoc and DU Music.
