Happy 3rd Virtualosity Birthday!

Three years ago, we had that worried “how on earth do we keep music going” conversation and the idea of Virtualosity came into being! With six guinea pigs, our first concert ran on 26 March 2020, and as we worked out how to use Zoom and Teams, we got more confident! By the end of the summer term 2020, we were up to fourteen performances per concert. 

In conversation with 8-13 Head of Music, Mrs Craven, she described Virtualosity as her "happy place during the lockdown days, both in summer 2020 and Easter term 2021." She said that "seeing friends and pupils on the screen each week, still making music, really did brighten up the coldest Friday in February!"

It has been so amazing to watch the concerts flourish with the return to school; we had a term or two where we had hybrid concerts – children isolating at home would join their class bubble over Teams, and then the sweet relief of normality!

To have had over 1000 performances is something that dreams are made of. Mrs Craven said she is very quick at editing on iMovie and uploading to YouTube when it used to take her hours to begin with. She said that "Children will often come and ask if they can sign themselves up to play; and to be able to give every child a performance experience each week is something that not many schools offer. I am beyond grateful to the music staff who got on board with the idea from the outset, and to the children for being such wonderfully enthusiastic participants."

Here’s to the next 1000…