I travelled to Parliament Square this morning and met up with my MU colleagues Dave Webster and Maddy Radcliff, plus hooked up once more with photographer Jonathan Stewart. We were on hand to support the WeMakeEvents event featuring around four hundred freelance orchestral musicians, who had gathered to publicise the financial challenges facing their community.
We soon met event producer Jessie Murphy, violinist with ELO and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who had performed a superb job of liaising with all the players and creating a format for the event. On hand were camera crews from Sky News (Lucy Cotter), ITV and the BBC. This led to the ITV London feature included here. The musicians played Mars from the Holst Planet Suite for ninety seconds, then stood in silence for two minutes, which provided a dramatic and moving climax to proceedings.
We can only hope that the event drew attention to the plight of our world-class musicians and the need for further support from the authorities.
