Music Cities Resilience Handbook: Two Years On, A Series.

In June 2020, with a host of global partners, Sound Diplomacy and the Center for Music Ecosystems published the Music Cities Resilience Handbook. We launched this report at the height of the first wave of the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were six months away from the announcement of the first vaccine and while we, along with millions of other firms in the UK, were grateful to be part of several government-sponsored furlough schemes, looking into the future and when the pandemic would end was still a serious challenge.

Music is a part of all of our lives but as a business, music was collapsing. Live venues closed, concerts and festivals were canceled, and shopping malls and restaurants that employed music were shuttered. The statistics emerging from the first lockdown were sobering. But music, as an expression of the human spirit, was never more prevalent in our lives. As a result, we thought it would be a good exercise to both remind us how important music is and what could improve where circumstances allowed it. Music, especially at the beginning of the pandemic from February to June 2020, was a proven lifeline for many. Scenes of Italians singing and playing violins from their balconies, or choirs meeting online provided hope, demonstrating the importance of music and culture in improving the human condition.