GARSINGTON OPERA
Reaching out
Covid-19 has not stopped Garsington Opera’s learning and participation team making a difference to people’s lives. Claire Jackson finds out more ‘
M
angoes, mangoes, I walked through a forest full of mangoes,’ sings Hannah Conway, inviting participants to join her. Sitting at the piano, she smiles encouragingly, repeating the simple melody, which was composed during a previous workshop. Next to her, Karen Gillingham provides some actions to accompany the lyrics ‘mangoes in the morning, mangoes on the street, mangoes in the evening, mangoes just to eat’. We press the palms of our hands together and place them under our chins to signify waking; move our arms enthusiastically to indicate walking. Garsington Opera’s learning and participation team shares this type of engaging music making with hundreds of children throughout the year as part of its ongoing commitment to education, running alongside the annual summer opera festival held at Wormsley in Buckinghamshire.
Often, the nurses join in and you can hear singing from further down the ward! ‘I’m always eating mangoes for my dinner and my tea,’ continues Conway. It’s a typical workshop – except that the pianist is at home, playing her upright Pleyel. And Gillingham, Garsington Opera’s learning and participation creative director just accidentally trod on her cat. Cats don’t usually come to Garsington’s music sessions – but then, the classes aren’t normally broadcast from the tutors’ separate living rooms, shared virtually via Zoom. ‘We had an extensive programme planned for this year,’ says Gillingham afterwards; we ‘meet’ on screen thanks to the wonders of WhatsApp. ‘We would usually be going into schools, working with local children and adults through community groups and our youth and adult companies.’ When coronavirus came, putting a stop to any real-life face time, Gillingham and her colleagues acted quickly. ‘We had all these musicians and participants signed up, ready to work and learn – we didn’t want to waste that opportunity,’ she says, ‘and because Garsington is a relatively small organisation we can move efficiently. I thought that we needed a few weeks to set up the online sessions, but Johnny Langridge [Garsington’s director of membership and communications] knew that it was important not to wait – it’s vital to keep going.’ The sessions – streamed at 10am on a Monday and dubbed ‘Monday Motivations’ have proved a hit. The first one attracted 52,000 viewers, with subsequent broadcasts increasing in popularity, particularly after Classic FM recommended the venture as part of its lockdown activities for families. ‘I always felt that our digital offering
could never replace the face-to-face contact,’ reflects Gillingham, ‘I still believe that, but it’s brilliant to be able to reach people in this way.’ Gillingham is used to working with large groups: ‘My work always has a participatory element to it,’ she explains, ‘I work with community choirs and schools. Dare to Dream [children’s opera performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019] included nearly 2,000 participants.’ Gillingham has worked with Wormsley for over 10 years; prior to that, she was co-artistic director of the Royal Opera House’s Youth Opera Company. Her directing credits include proms, plays and plenty of opera premieres. Garsington Opera was founded in 1989 by the late Leonard Ingrams and his wife Rosalind at Garsington Manor, near Oxford. The company moved to the Wormsley Estate, home of the Getty family, in 2011, where an annual opera series now takes place. Visitors return year after year, attracted to the high-quality performances and the beautiful setting for the traditional extended-interval picnic. (Where else do you get a notice warning, ‘Do not leave your food out during the first half – red kites like antipasti’?)
Ward Songs: making music with patients in hospital
54 CLASSICALMUSICMAGAZINE.ORG MAY/JUNE 2020
CM0506_20_054-055_F_Feature GarsingtonLTOK.indd 54
21/04/2020 10:04