Covid-19’s impact on singing and teaching

Tom Service talks to mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly about musical life during lockdown and her calls for more support and protection for the music industry, as well as clarity from science regarding the potential risk of spreading Covid-19 through singing and playing wind instruments. In search of answers about the latter, we also examine research investigating whether speech, singing and playing wind instruments does indeed spread this virus, and hear from two ENT specialists - both also musicians - Declan Costello in the UK and Adam Schwalje in the USA. Turning to the impact of the coronavirus on music education in the UK, Tom joins peripatetic teachers working for Hull Music Service to hear how music provision is faring as part of home schooling. He hears, too, how the UK's music colleges are responding, and their plans for the next academic year with Jonathan Freeman-Attwood of the Royal Academy of Music in London, Linda Merrick of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and Jeffrey Sharkey at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.