Last night St Luke’s Music Society held its first live concert in the 2020/21 season. It took an enormous effort by the volunteers who run the Society, and compromises by the audience, who were clearly thrilled by the piano recital by Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition winner Barry Douglas.
Shortly after the start of the concert a young black woman with her son aged about 7 came into the church to see what was going on. Her son was studying the piano, and although she was not wearing a mask (though everyone else in the audience was: it was a condition of entry) because she had just popped in out of curiosity, and had not bought a ticket they were nevertheless made welcome and a steward found them seats.
At the end she said how much she and her son had enjoyed the performance. However, when she was asked to provide her name and phone number for contact tracing purposes she refused. She was shown a list of everyone who had attended the concert who – again as a condition of entry – had provided their details, and then in front of several people refused again and said that it made her feel uneasy and that she felt she was only being asked because she was black. She produced what she said was a press pass, which she appeared to think made her exempt.
Perhaps she has a back story of living under some brutal regime where providing contact details is a real risk. But actually it seemed like a very dispiriting start to a month that should be about exploring understanding and reconciliation. It would be good to think that on reflection she feels ashamed of how she responded to people being kind and welcoming. Conforming to the contact tracing regulations is essential for live music to continue.
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