Music in a Pandemic

The Oxford Lieder Festival is a highlight on the international classical music calendar.

2020 brought special challenges as the audience was locked-down at home, or unable to cross borders, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Undaunted by these challenges, the Festival reinvented itself into an online event. Oxford's Holywell Music Room was transformed into a television studio, crammed with cameras and microphones. The Festival is well-known for finding beautiful, hidden venues around Oxford, so additional broadcasts came from many remote locations to create a very successful, intense, week of music-making.

Here are a few images from the preparations, includding Caroline Sampson and Joseph Middleton rehearsing for a splendid concert in the Holywell Music Room.