Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2020
Music in the Round was one of many organisations that chose to move its 2020 activity online. Jo Towler, Executive Director of Music in the Round, reflects on SCMF at Home.
I really enjoyed it. The music was so beautiful and something I probably wouldn't have had access to if it wasn't streamed online.
In these times of lockdown and very little live music, Music in the Round was one of many organisations that chose to move its activity online.
The first Sheffield Chamber Music Festival (SCMF) held by Music in the Round was in May 1984, and this year was the first time it had been cancelled. However, we didn’t want to let our many Friends and supporters down, so we decided to create an online version of the Festival on 15 and 16 May, which would have been the last two days of SCMF.
Working with the 11 musicians of our resident group, Ensemble 360, and guest artists who would have been appearing with us in SCMF, we created and promoted the 19 events of ‘SCMF at Home’ over six weeks. The Festival was presented on our YouTube channel, with a video released on the hour throughout both days.
Content ranged from an outdoor horn recital at daybreak in the Peak District and a Beethoven oboe trio in several rooms in Adrian Wilson’s house, to a conversation with pianist Paul Lewis about Beethoven and a Concerteenies event for children aged 0-5.
Free to watch online, we invited anyone watching to donate and to complete a survey so we could learn what was liked and what could be improved for the future.
Was it successful?
There are many positives for us to take from this festival. A month later, it has had 33,000 views, of which 11,000 are unique. Considering we get around 1,000 bookers for the annual SCMF, this means we reached 10,000 more people with our virtual version. We were able to connect with those who wouldn’t normally be able to attend our concerts:
Have visited Music in the Round since it started but am now disabled and cannot attend theatres. For me, watching MITR on YouTube was a gift from heaven.
Thank you for putting online. Normally I cannot afford to go to concerts so it was lovely to have the opportunity to hear these different musicians playing music, most of which I am unfamiliar with.
It also meant increased accessibility:
I am slightly hard of hearing, and was able to hear the question and answer sessions, which were so well conducted, clearly.
Not only did we smash our £5,000 fundraising target, but working with Culture Counts we were able to learn from our survey who was watching and why – and if they were likely to engage with us in the future.
What did we learn?
Some people found YouTube tricky to navigate, which we will try and make easier in the future. But it meant that those watching could chat to each other in the chatbox alongside the film, and many people commented afterwards that this led them to feel like they were sharing the music with others, bringing a vital ‘concert community’ feel to the experience that would normally be enjoyed at a live event. There was also a request for programme notes to be available, which we’ll look to provide on our website in future.
SCMF at Home was created almost from scratch. Of the 19 videos, 16 were created in just a few weeks in April, which meant it felt very much of its time with musicians playing in their own homes and discussions happening via Zoom. There was almost as much chat about the musicians’ front rooms as there was about the music!
This set it apart from the archive footage that is available elsewhere, bringing a relevance and personal touch to the festival that is in keeping with our aim of bringing people closer to music. It also meant we could take advantage of it being virtual as opposed to anything that could be done live, such as selfie oboe trios and horn playing on top of a hill at sunrise.
We also think our fundraising efforts were successful as each of the musicians gently asked people to donate as part of their introductions to the music, and the link to the relevant website was in the text below each video so it could be done there and then online.
Our £5,000 target? We raised over £17,000!
