Soprano is delighted to join the virtual festival
Chichester-based soprano Tamzin Barnett has participated in the past five Festivals of Chichester, bar one. It felt really strange when the festival was cancelled in March. And it has felt really strange not to be practising now for her festival recital.
But she is thrilled to be joining the Virtual Festival of Chichester instead.
On Friday, July 10, Tamzin will be offering A Recital in Rehearsal: videos from her rehearsal process (with her teacher and pianist Birgit Rohovsky) of songs by Mozart, Schubert and Massenet. See https://festivalofchichester. co.uk/virtual-festival/
“I love my usual audience, and Chichester audiences are usually so welcoming, but I guess I do feel much more positive this week because the Virtual Festival of
Chichester is happening and it is really good that artists have been able to adapt, and even if it is not paid work, it definitely helps. Before, I don’t think I would have had the confidence it put it out there… but I am definitely feeling more confident again now. Back in March, it was very strange. Things started to get cancelled and then everything was cancelled. I had 15 performances cancelled. Right now I should be on tour with New Sussex Opera, but the whole thing was canned – or postponed until this time next year.
And that is more positive especially as things are still so uncertain for the arts. I am very lucky in that I teach singing at Bishop Luffa, and I have a few extra private pupils. And I have put all my teaching online. I am teaching on Zoom. I didn’t think it would work that well, but it is almost better, I want to say. The lessons are so focused. There is no chit chat. You are just straight down to the lesson and my students really seem to enjoy it. And I am having my own singing lessons online as well.”
The frustration is that Tamzin misses performing: “I miss it so much. I like to have the focus of working towards something. But there are some positives. When everything was cancelled, I was able to take my technique right back to basics and reflect on what I want to be as an artist. There are so many awful things happening in the world and so many issues being thrown up. It has made me question what I want to put forward to the public, what kind of message I want to show through my recitals and through my art.”
Tamzin did a recital last year including a lot of work by female composers – and she wants now to go even further down that route:
“Last year I was thinking about what it means to be a woman in the 21st century and how even in classical music it seems to be such a male-dominated canon. There is a whole lot of music that I don’t even know about. I would really like to work from more female composers and research more composers from minorities. I think it is absolutely necessary that we start see the work of female and male composers as completely equal.”
For the festival, Tamzin is sharing videos she made just before the official lockdown: “They were taken from a rehearsal with my singing teacher and coach, and actually they were just made for my own practice purposes, but I really wanted to provide something for the festival. I felt like I was singing well, and I was preparing for a competition that was supposed to be two weeks afterwards . I hate seeing myself, but I also feel so lucky to be part of this technology era where I have the ability to film myself so easily.”