RCS FINDS CREATIVE ANSWERS DURING PANDEMIC
MAKING art without a live audience has become a problem due to the lockdown – but some of the nation’s most exciting emerging voices have designed a solution.
This week, students from the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) will showcase their talents globally through a new digital celebration of bold contemporary performance.
The Propel festival will see experimental and eclectic new works from the Conservatoire’s Contemporary Performance Practice programme.
From June 2 to 12, live and recorded works which explore and question human connection during the coronavirus pandemic will be premiered over various online platforms.
Students from all four year groups of the degree course have created original and innovative works during lockdown for the festival.
These include a live digital adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to be shared on a Zoom Webinar and an intergenerational choreographic work spread over 60 one-minute films, with dancers aged 60 and above.
Propel also features a panel discussion on making performance in isolation, the internet as a creative space and emerging into an uncertain landscape, as well as artist’s talks, with one on how artists can make a difference to the lives of prisoners across the UK.
Dr Laura Bissell, interim head of Contemporary Performance Practice and lecturer in research at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, said: “The definition of contemporary is ‘existing’ or ‘happening now’ and, as a festival of contemporary performance, Propel attempts to examine the way in which we can continue to make new work while in quarantine.
ONE of the most exciting young artists on the European jazz scene – and a Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) graduate – will launch a performance series to celebrate and share musical excellence nurtured in Scotland.
Rising star Fergus
“We are so proud of the artists from all four year groups for their bold and original concepts that they’ve developed during lockdown.
“Propel is a platform to showcase these curious, creative, collaborative and socially engaged artists who are committed to exploring the
McCreadie, the multi-awardwinning pianist and composer, will kick off a concert series on Wednesday, June 3, co-presented by the RCS and Scotland House, the Scottish Government office in London.
The Scotland House social function of performance and how it can be an act of community.
“We’re excited about sharing their work with a global audience in our first digital season of Propel.”
Full details about the 10-day long festival can be found online at rcs.ac.uk/propel.
Sessions with the RCS will introduce students and alumni from the conservatoire to audiences in the UK and beyond in three lunchtime performances.
Other performers include Canadian classical guitarist Tim Beattie and Scottish
opera singers Fiona Joice and Liam Bonthrone.
The 1pm concerts will be broadcast on RCS At Home, an online platform created by the Royal Conservatoire in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to connect students, staff, alumni and audiences.