It is difficult to put into words how it feels to once again, after this long interval, perform live music with an orchestra. I’ve missed the explorative sounds, the thrill of a challenge, the deeply immersive concentration in performance, the organic progression of a project, the collective pursuit of excellence, the feeling of belonging, the extraordinary characters, the excitement, the unexpected twists and turns of freelance life, playing in rooms larger than my dining room, the erudite teachings and nurture of a guru-conductor, the social interaction, having a reason to practise, the minutiae of musical interpretation, harmony, mind-broadening travel, and the intrinsically ephemeral joy of live performance; it punctuates our lives. It’s only now that I truly appreciate how life-enriching and vital that punctuation is.

So it was with great anticipation and happiness that we were able to begin rehearsals with the Aurora Orchestra again. However, before that could happen there were two significant hurdles: the memorisation of Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 in A Major, and a Covid-19 test.

After performing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique last year I wrote that memorising felt like part of the etiquette in the Aurora Orchestra. This year social distancing simply became a new facet of orchestral etiquette. None of us wanted to return to the musical silence of the last six months. We all knew that it was vital to protect others and to ensure the safety of the players and the future of the project. In a nutshell, we had to maintain social distancing, have a swab test, catch condensation from instruments and wear face masks whenever we moved around the room. Incredibly, I didn’t notice any musical issues on account of the more spacious layout. Special thanks must go the orchestra team who had to plan and introduce these measures (and numerous others), to overcome 2020-specific challenges.

Even though I had more time available this year it felt harder to memorise the Beethoven than the Berlioz last year. Back then, I did the bulk of my memorisation work while travelling and I missed that regular but useful downtime this year. Nevertheless, I arrived at the first rehearsal with just a few remaining doubts, or perhaps cautious confidence would be a better way of putting it - which is probably no bad thing on an instrument as immediately audible as the trumpet.

There was a sense of relief in the first rehearsal, not just because we played the symphony through from memory for the first time; a socially-distanced cheer resounded when we received confirmation that none of us had tested positive for the virus. The first rehearsal was full of spine-tingling moments as we experienced such vivid live music for the first time in six months.