2020 you rascal…

Such a strange time we’re living in – life has been altered in so many ways. It’s been very difficult times for some, and for others who are lucky, we’ve managed to muddle through and wade through with our health intact which is obviously the most important thing this year for everyone!

Everyones work has been impacted and the arts sector has taken its share of the hits – opening partially, closing fully and lots of ambiguity in between for good measure! Now as we approach Christmas I can look back my year in music, and say it’s been a very mixed bag but there have some surprising highs along the way

I started out intending to create musical opportunities for every age, and that did happen, Our Inishowen Choir of Ages was such a joy that sadly ended early – but at some point we will rise again. I finish the year making music with tiny babies and their families having signed a contract with Carnegie Hall to run the Irish branch of their Lullaby Project. Yes I am a bit chuffed about having managed that in a covid world!

Many of our Music box kids were able to carry on classes via zoom and we even recorded a very special song – Christmastime Again. Much more about that over on http://www.themusicboxireland.com!

I signed up for a course at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and am enjoying a new world of conducting, arranging, writing, project management, group music development, clarinet and fiddle lessons….the list is longer but all of it feels like such a treat. I am grateful to be immersed in new musical experiences and learning from such amazing lecturers and musicians. I have lots of homework to do though and lets just say my homework habits haven’t changed as much as I’d hoped since secondary school lol!!

I’ve done some song writing, some collaborating – writing music and recording etc. I’ve run zoom songwriting courses and recorded a 12 part series for a digital arts project though the Playhouse Theatre. We learn, we try – sometimes it’s a fiasco and sometimes it works! 🙂 We’re definitely all together on that front this year!

Things will wind down now for the year and we hope, hope, hope for better times ahead and a chance to get back to sharing life again – with a new sense of gratitude for those simple things – the smiles in the shops, the hugs for our sad, ill or struggling friends and those we haven’t seen for a while. It will come back and we will know how special it all is. Have a great Christmas everyone, and thanks so much for all the great music and participation this year – no one in the arts works alone – and I am blessed with great friends and families that spend their musical time with me. All the hugs, Bernie xxx