An extraordinary choral work, inspired by an Addenbrooke’s patient who spent more than 70 days in Covid intensive care, is being performed at King's College Chapel in Cambridge (Thursday 20th July, 7.30pm), with staff from the hospital also singing in the concert.
Taking part in the concert at King's and singing alongside such wonderful musicians is a fantastic opportunity. I'm really looking forward to it.
Dan Harris, senior nurse CUH
‘Vision of a Garden’, composed by Richard Blackford, is based on the diaries filled out by nursing staff looking after Professor Peter Johnstone while he was unconscious, and draws inspiration from the Jubilee Garden at Addenbrooke’s, where he was taken during his recovery.
The choral work is being performed by The Bach Choir, which commissioned the piece, and Britten Sinfonia which regularly comes to play for patients at the hospital.
Also taking part will be Professor Johnstone himself, a long-time member of The Bach Choir and a mathematician from St John’s College Cambridge.
Professor Johnstone was admitted to Addenbrooke’s in March 2020 with Covid and was soon transferred to intensive care and put on a ventilator.
He remained in a coma for many weeks and was cared for by up to a hundred different staff from across the hospital, including staff volunteers who came to support the critical care units.
He was finally discharged months later in June 2020.
Alongside ‘Vision of a Garden’, the concert will also feature a special choir made up of twenty members of staff from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH).
They will join The Bach Choir and Britten Sinfonia to perform Thomas Tallis’s Hymn in G Minor.
Among those singing will be senior nurse Dan Harris who cared for Peter while he was in Covid intensive care.
He recalls playing music to Peter and at Easter played him Handel's Messiah while he was still critically ill.
He said:
“Peter made a remarkable recovery from Covid. I'll never forgot that time during the pandemic, when we had so many patients in intensive care and he was with us for so many weeks.
"We knew he loved singing and choral music so that was a way to relax him and lift his spirits."
‘Vision of a Garden’ is thought to be the first musical collaboration about the Covid pandemic, based on a survivor’s experiences.
It was first performed in October 2021 at the Royal Festival Hall, with Professor Johnstone taking part.
The concert at King's College Chapel is part of the Cambridge Summer Music Festival and also includes Duruflé's Requiem, Christopher Wood’s Aberfan, a moving tribute to the disaster of 1966 and Vaughan Williams’ masterpiece for string orchestra Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
For more information about the concert on Thursday 20th July click here: https://cambridgesummermusic.com/csmf-2023-britten-sinfonia-and-the-bach-choir/ (opens in a new tab)
