A day in the life of… DOMINIC FERRIS PIANO PLAYER TO THE STARS
A typical day always begins the same way: strong Italian coffee! I’m not really a morning person, so a caffeine hit first thing is essential. My recording studio at home also serves as an office, so once I’ve opened up the studio and had some Weetabix, I spend the first hour of my day dealing with emails. By 11am I am ready to immerse myself in whatever the priority project is for that particular day.
During lockdown, I have been working on two creative projects. The first of these was a morale-boosting effort for the UK theatre industry. Our friends and colleagues in the performing arts world are facing a real challenge in that no theatres are likely to reopen anytime soon; so I teamed up with colleagues Martin Milnes, Anthony Cherry and Tom Large to create. The video stars singer Alfie Boe, alongside other household names from the theatre world, and was released on all of the major UK theatre platforms. We were thrilled that, at age 103, Dame Vera herself agreed to record a special message of love and best wishes. The recording turned out to be her final public appearance as we heard the sad news of her passing on 18 June. The project took around a month to complete; as all the artists recorded their vocals in isolation, many hours were spent editing, cleaning and processing the audio and visual elements so that they blended nicely in the final edit. The video has now clocked up around half a million views and can be watched on YouTube.
