Composer & Creative Director
Dawn, on the Morning After the Storm
A project involving members of the ISARIC4C Pandemic Consortium. Following interviews about their musical lives and work during the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the consortium recorded performances of a new work for an online concert and participated in an accompanying film.
The Project
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, scientists, doctors and health researchers from across the U.K. joined the pandemic consortium ISARIC4C, a national group made from the wider global ISARIC consortium in order to advise the U.K. government. It was a stressful time with researchers often working around the clock, feeling that they could not leave their work despite other work responsibilities and family obligations. This project was designed in part to provide respite to those working in these conditions, and to recognise the achievements of people whose work was carried out on the frontline of research.
Over a span of months, Leeming met with each of the participants to hear how music had played a part in their lives, what led them to choose their professions, and whether they were able to continue music-making in their adult lives, including during the pandemic. The doctors and researchers shared their experiences working on COVID-19 at a time when the future was uncertain. Their experiences informed the composition of Dawn, on the Morning After the Storm and the participants recorded their performances on home devices. The composer created a video of the performance for an online premiere at Future Music #3, a festival celebrating new music, technology and collaboration between disciplines.
​
ISARIC4C
ISARIC4C is a UK-wide consortium of doctors and scientists delivering a COVID-19 research programme to meet urgent public health needs. Co-led by investigators at the University of Edinburgh, University of Liverpool and Imperial College London, it is a collaboration of over 200 scientists from 11 institutions and NHS teams from 350 hospitals. Outputs from the project have informed the UK’s response to the pandemic, based on data and biological samples from patients in hospitals across the UK, and it is one of the largest COVID-19 projects in the world. https://isaric.org
About the composition
Dawn, on the Morning After the Storm, was named after a phrase used by consortium co-lead Professor Callum Semple to describe a hope for the future in a time when the waves had stopped. The work is influenced by Scottish folk music, a common link many of the participants had in their musical journeys. The music begins as a lament to those who sadly lost their lives, before progressing through a section that reflected the participants coming together to work. As the participants also shared experiences of coming together to play through online "ISARIC's got talent" zoom calls, which Leeming sets as a jig, before it melds into a hopeful song for the future.
Work Details​
​​
​
Bagpipes, Clarinet in Bb, Voice, Piano, 5 violins
10min approx.
​
Premiered at Future Music #3 by ISARIC4C
Prof. Calum Semple OBE (Bagpipes)
Murray Wham (Clarinet)
Prof. Ewen Harrison (Piano)
Dr Olivia Swann (Voice)
Prof. Paul Klenerman, Dr Shona Moore, Dr Riinu Pius, Dr Louisa Pollock (Violins)​​