Some serious play: Collaborative online music making by the Glasgow
Improvisers Orchestra - Maria Sappho Donahue (Presenter), Raymond
MacDonald, Robert Burke, Tia DeNora, Ross Birrell

Some serious play: Collaborative online music making by the Glasgow
Improvisers Orchestra - Maria Sappho Donahue (Presenter), Raymond
MacDonald, Robert Burke, Tia DeNora, Ross Birrell
Conference presentation, Screening and Panel Discussion on the GIO flattening the curve sessions and subsequent series of films.

Conference: Accessing Jazz and Improvised Music 2021
Presented by Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney and the Australasian Jazz and Improvisation Research (AJIR), 5-6 June 2021

Collaboration with Rachel Joy Weiss, musician and PhD Candidate University of Miami

Flattening the curve
On 23 March 2020 the UK Govt. announced a ‘national emergency’ in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to help the NHS cope with the growing number of people who would potentially require intensive care treatment, a policy of ‘social distancing’ was implemented informing people to stay at home with the aim that this would help ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic. For musicians, one of the consequences of enforced social distancing was the inability to rehearse, record or perform with anyone outside their home. Under these conditions, members of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO) began improvising using Zoom software as a means of maintaining their musical community. Musicians experiencing similar ‘lockdowns’ in other parts of the world were also invited to take part. Sessions were held for two hours twice weekly and developed to include an international group of over 70 musicians all of whom were living under conditions of social distancing.