Latest News! Over £1,300 has been raised by Chorus of Dissent to support their pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe after all her performances and teaching have been cancelled. Donations were received following choir founder Ruth Whitehead’s streaming of Krystal playing Rachmaninov in the choir’s All You Need is Love concert at St Matthias Church in October.
DissentersN16 may have cancelled their upcoming Mozart Requiem but there’s one thing they’re not cancelling – paying their professional orchestra the Elastic Band.
At a time when freelance musicians are seeing their work (and wages) cut at a swipe with almost every musical performance and face-to-face music lesson cancelled, Dissenters are eager to buck the trend.
They will dig deep and find in excess of £6,000 to pay nearly 40 strings, winds and percussion players who form the Elastic Band in full for the cancelled concert. It’s all about making sure they and their families get every bit of help possible.
Says founder of DissentersN16 Ruth Whitehead: “Morally this is the right thing to do. We value our musicians. Music helps us through our tough times, so let’s help those who make it through theirs.”
“I am enormously grateful and touched by Ruth’s wonderful generosity in paying the fee for the cancelled Mozart concert,” says violinist Julia Atkinson. “As all our work is live, musicians’ livelihoods are particularly hard hit. Thank you for supporting us.”
Adds EB timpanist Shaun Bainsford: “We are all so grateful to still be paid for a cancelled concert. It’s extremely kind of Ruth and DissentersN16, and will go a long way to helping out because, as with most musicians, my diary has been completely wiped out.”