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Peter Graham – Diary in Lockdown

Attending one of the final rehearsals of my Glasgow Wind Band commission, “Angels & Demons”, due to premiere at
March the Scottish Wind Festival the following weekend. Sadly the festival becomes an early casualty of the COVID crisis
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and that rehearsal is the last live ensemble performance I’m going to hear for......who knows how long?

Lockdown it is. A mercy dash to pick up a friend of my daughters who, given the choice of spending weeks in her flat
on her own or at with the Grahams opts for the latter. An indication of her desperation I think.
March Easter weekend: so far, so good. Settled into a lockdown uniform of T-shirt, hoodie and jeans (avoiding decision
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fatigue). The following days follow a routine of permitted exercise (discovering places in the locale we didn’t know
existed), playing hunt the toilet roll (though we have plenty already), quizzes and homemade dinners where we
transform the dining room into a Taverna/US Diner/Italian Restaurant/McDonalds (I was outvoted…).

Amazingly the weather has been consistently fine. Time to sort out the garden. Finding fence wood stain becomes a
April challenge of Mission Impossible proportions. Not having “Cummings Chutzpah”, I’m feeling very exposed driving to
4 the one store open which might possibly have a supply. I’m eyed with suspicion by the door guard. I make a run for
the Cuprinol - catastrophe - they only have red cedar left!!

April Actually, red cedar doesn’t look too bad.
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Another one bites the dust. Australian National Brass Band Championships are cancelled. The bands had been
April working on my piece “The Torchbearer”, the set work this year. All those rehearsals without the prospect of a
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final performance. This is becoming the norm sadly.

I’ve been watching lots of brass players posting videos of themselves performing on social media. This gives me an
idea. Since my large scale ensemble commissions are on hold at the moment, maybe I could put together a series of
April
13 duet studies? Even better, could I persuade some player friends to produce demo videos using a cappella software?
Amazingly all of the world class performers I asked have responded positively! If there is one good thing coming out
of this pandemic it’s to witness a generosity of spirit. Better do my part and make these free downloads.

Enjoyable Zoom meeting with Michael J. Garasi and his students in Florida.
April This becomes a regular occurrence with groups across the world and actually
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works really well.

The duet series launches with Thomas and James Fountain playing the first of
April my Six A Cappella Studies. Amazing playing, but don’t take my word for it. Have
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a listen: www.youtube.com/user/GramercyMusic/videos

Another premiere missed, this time in Palanga Lithuania. So sorry for all who have put so much time, effort and
May finances into what would have been a spectacular European Brass Festival. My trip to Denmark to adjudicate at the
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Aalborg Music Festival later in the month also goes by the wayside, as does the Grand Shield competition.

A milestone. We clear out the loft. 20+ years of things we kept
May
6 “in case they are useful someday”. Guess what?

This is a bigger task than we thought. Why is there a dismantled
May
7 greenhouse up there??

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