Arts organisations around the country have been forced to adapt to the changing landscape caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, turning to digital projects to sustain creativity while physical gathering has been restricted. The young musicians from Sydney Youth Orchestras have been working on their own project, The Fractured Orchestra, a collaborative composition project involving the combined 550-strong SYO ensembles.

The Fractured OrchestraA still from The Fractured Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Sydney Youth Orchestras

“With orchestras unable to get together during the pandemic lockdowns, SYO needed to think of another way to provide a stimulus and a service to our ‘client’ student musicians deprived of collective playing experience,” said SYO Artistic Director Christopher Lawrence, who initiative the project. “So we decided on a substitute collective creative experience; with Beethoven out of the picture for a while, the kids should try and make up their own original stuff, mixing it with their own reflections of life under COVID, through composition, journalism and prediction.”

The project brings together a creative team involving composer and media artist Damian Barbeler, film-maker Sophie Raymond (whose music documentary Recorder Queen premiered recently on ABC TV’s Compass) and multi-award-winning editor Lindi Harrison.

“Given...