Musicians perform special score live on city beach for Hidden Door

A group of 20 musicians have gathered on a city beach to perform a socially distanced piece of live music.

The beach performance is part of the Hidden Door Live shows, featuring musicians, visual artists, film makers and dancers in live-streamed performances.

Harpist Esther Swift performed The Call with her friends, a special score that she wrote in response to the a year of restrictions which saw live music and performance brought to a halt.

Esther composed the piece especially for her friends to play as part of the city’s Hidden Door Live projects – and the full performance is now available to watch online.

She was joined on Seafield beach by violins, bagpipes, flutes, percussion, cellos, saxophones, and even an alp horn. Esther used three specially-made flags to conduct the musicians, who were all standing ten metres apart.

The score is available for free from Esther, who hopes others around the world will hear The Call and be inspired to perform their own version in reply.

She said: “The past year has been a challenge for us all in so many ways, but one thing that has kept me going is music and the promise of being able to make music with my friends again.

“In creating this project I wanted to proclaim to my friends around the world that I’m still here, we’re all still here.

“Though we are behind closed doors we have not forgotten each other, and we still strive to connect with each other, to hold rituals together, to call to each other in whatever way we can, from wherever we can.

“I can’t tell you how special it was to be able to get together and make music together after so long, and to feel the energy on the beach bright and early that morning.”

The beach performance is part of the Hidden Door Live shows, featuring musicians, visual artists, film makers and dancers in live-streamed performances.

Hidden Door is an arts organisation which aims to open up urban spaces as a platform for new and emerging artists, musicians, theatre makers, performers, film makers and poets. Through organising temporary events Hidden Door showcases new work and creates unique opportunities for people to experience, explore and discover.

Esther’s full live show, where she discusses the project in more depth and performs some of her own harp music, is available on Youtube.

Hidden Door Live is supported by Creative Scotland.

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