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#RWCMDCreative: Isolation Inspirations

24 May 2020

Continuing our regular snapshot of the inspirational posts being shared on #RWCMDCreative: Thank you to everyone who’s been posting and bringing us joy from your isolation creation stations.

So to kick us off, here are our music students, collaborating across the music department to say Thank you for the Music:

We have our very own RWCMD NHS Hero in MA Opera Performance student, Louise Geller. A fully-trained doctor, Louise has returned to the front line, but is keeping up her singing much to the delight of her patients!

We’ll be clapping her as well as all the other amazing key workers every Thursday. Although some of us may well be singing, like Opera Performance graduate Trystan Griffiths who signed off Radio 4’s Today programme this week:

Cornet teacher Chris Turner shared this performance by the Llwydcoed Band, honouring the NHS. Collaborating with Dame Evelyn Glennie, the band features no less than nine future, present or past RWCMD students. The beautiful arrangement is by our Director of Brass Band studies, the mighty Bob Childs.

 

Online teaching continues, with graduate, composer and tutor Mark Boden looking forward to entering the fray:

Musician and music journalist Fenella Humphreys launched her new series talking to two of our student composers, Jasper and Derri:

Derri and Jasper were part of the student social media ‘takeover’ team for our first online new music Atmospheres Festival, which was a huge success with a record-breaking audience of over 600!

The Nat and Jake Show continues to talk music, composition and creativity every other Friday night. Meanwhile, never one to rest on her laurels, co-presenter and composition student Nat Roe has a new EP out:

And look out for our online Jazz festival, a weekend of collaboration with guest artists, students, grads and College tutors, from 4- 6 June.

You can find more on our What’s On pages.

Jazz student Coren Sithers hasn’t let lockdown stop his flow of creativity: as well as working with his own band Heulwen, and creating an  EP of original music in his bedroom, which he’s releasing in September, he’s set up his Isolation Project, creating and posting work every single day of the lockdown. This is Day 54.

Follow him every day @corensithers on Instagram.

As well as regular masterclasses with leading agents and industry professionals, Musical Theatre MA students have been working with London based Welsh theatre company Chippy Lane Productions on a new project:

and posting their singing online for us all to enjoy:

 

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@catherinezetajones @royalwelshmamts @rwcmd @llyr.simon #uk2020grad

A post shared by CELYN CARTWRIGHT (@celynllwyd) on

Thank you for that music, Celyn. The MT online showcase will be hitting our website soon.

Arts Management student Sofi Nowell has created online gallery Kara Mirva, which means Care For/Love Gallery in Sofi’s native Cornish. She invited artists to donate a piece of their work, with funds raised going to the Covid-19 Fund, part of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity, supporting NHS workers, patients and their families in hospitals across Cornwall.

Two of the contributing artists, Iwan Lewis and Daniel McCarthy, are from Wales.
“I set up the gallery as a way of saying thank you to our heroic NHS workers, while sharing and celebrating the work of brilliant artists,” said Sofi.

Find out more on the Kara Mirva website.

Our acting community continue to share great content online, interacting to perform each other’s work, sharing their knowledge and supporting each other creatively.

If you’re in need of some experimental escapism then check out the Dalton $wine Clwb’s new soundcloud page:

Acting grads Hamish Rush, Oliver Morgan-Thomas and Feliks Mathur have teamed up with guests including fellow grad Charlotte Merriam and Musical Theatre grad Jenny Adams, to record their DIY experimental comedic scenes, written during lockdown.

Join the Clwb: https://soundcloud.com/daltonswineclwb 

And our actors are on-screen as well: Graduate Anjana Vasan gives ‘a career-defining performance’ in the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre’s latest production of A Doll’s House:

And they’re helping us get through being shut indoors, appearing in some of the biggest Lockdown TV hits: including Harry Potter’s Anthony Boyle in HBO’s The Plot Against America, Tom Rhys Harries in Netflix’s White Lines, Aoife Hinds in smash-hit Normal People, Thalissa Texeira in BBC3’s Trigonometry, and Lola Pettigrew in Amazon Prime’s upcoming Dating Amber. 

In case you needed it, while you’re in front of the TV you can have a reminder of how lovely our Dora Stoutzker Hall is: BBC Young Musician in on BBC 4 every Sunday to get your fix.

Don’t forget to watch out for Junior Conservatoire harpist Huw Boucher in the Strings Finals.

This term’s Design for Performance puppetry project focuses on different animal classifications, from Amphibians to Arthropods. Working in isolation, the six groups of students are working together to create short films, bringing together puppetry, script-writing, art direction and editing skills.

 

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This mornings Dodo leg mechanisms and film practise 🐧#rwcmdcreative

A post shared by emily warman (@emwarman2) on

We’re hoping to screen these films at a later date, but keep an eye on #RWCMDCreative for more posts following the design students’ work.

Lockdown hasn’t stopped all the celebrations: this month was the launch of the College’s first Virtual Queer Ball, the brainchild of third year Design for Performance student Juliette Georges.

“It was a chance for me to work on a project similar to the one I would have been doing, based around the New York ball culture,” she said. “But the focus became much more on involving other people and having fun during the quarantine.”

In the run-up to the ball, working with Cardiff National Museum, she and design grad Aled Wyn Williams, who works at the museum, ran crafting sessions on @rwcmdlgbtq, the College’s LGBTQ+ Society’s Instagram page. Students sent in videos of their creations, made from what they could find around the house, using their hallway as a runway. The ball was streamed live, with a panel of judges choosing the best costume, and was such a success they’re already planning one for next month.

This week has been Mental Health Awareness Week, and the focus, appropriately enough during these challenging times, was Kindness.

The College’s Student Union has been delivering care packages of essentials and treats to students isolating in Cardiff.

“During the lockdown, the Students’ Union has been planning extra online events and campaigns for the summer term; from weekly pub quizzes and set challenges, to creating care packages for the students that are isolating alone,” explains Nia Thomas, SU President.

“Students’ welfare and mental health should always be the priority, and we’re looking forward to trying some new approaches to keep students engaged and ensure that everyone stays connected when we’re not physically in the building.”

“It’s such a surreal and uncertain time, but the strength and resilience that both our staff and students have shown – along with the overwhelming support they’ve given each other – make me very proud to be a member of the Royal Welsh College community.”

As always, thank you to all of you so much for sharing your creativity. Don’t forget to follow #RWCMDCreative on Instagram and Twitter to see all the brilliant stuff out there – and to keep tagging us.

But of course, we couldn’t leave you without Wales’ newest National Treasure, giving us some vital words of wisdom as only she can.

Take it away, Ness…

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