Focus on freelance musicians

This week Tom Service focuses on freelance musicians. He hears from the violinist Daniel Hope about the collaborative Hope@Home concert series featuring performances with young freelance musicians from his own living room in Berlin, which have been broadcast by the German/French ARTE TV network since the start of the pandemic and have reached a staggering 8-million viewers. The composer and author Julian Anderson speaks to Tom about his life in music - from his very first symphony, to an opera specially commissioned for a socially distanced world, Eight songs from isolation, as well as his new book of conversations with the scholar and critic Christopher Dingle, Dialogues on Culture, Composing and Listening. The trumpeter Chris Cotter talks to Music Matters about the ongoing economic and artistic challenges facing freelance musicians as they supplement their income by taking on other jobs. Horace Trubridge of the Musicians' Union talks to Tom about access to income support schemes, and we hear too from folk musician Anna Massie who explains how she and her peers are trying to find new ways of connecting with their audiences, while the jazz guitarist Shirley Tetteh describes what has happened to her life as a session musician since the start of the first lockdown.