Recently, Sheila has specialised in marrying her long interest in new technology with the timeless but sometimes rather impenetrable world of classical music. Apps, MOOCs and interactive films can all bring fabulous music to people who’d never go near a concert hall. Adult literacy, but for music.
Rewrite of Spring
As part of the feasibility study for the new Centre for Music in London, Sheila was commissioned with distinguished musicologist Gerard McBurney to devise and produce a prototype MOOC – Massive Open Online Course – about Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Among its joys are a performance with commentary by the players, a Music Engine for users to play around with Stravinsky’s famous chord progressions, an audio matrix of sounds from 1913, an interactive timeline of the work’s musical DNA, and lots of silly but engrossing and enlightening quizzes. The prototype is due for development into a fully fledged course in 2016.