Today we get to travel back in time to August 2022. Come and take a trip in the wondrous silver spaceship that is the Sage Gateshead! 

This video was recorded LIVE (at 10am, no less….!) in the foyer at the Sage.  It was such a privilege to play in this incredible space. I fell in love with it afresh each morning when arriving for Summer Studios. The geometry of the venue is nothing less than spectacular and Rob Irish, the brilliant videographer, has made it look even more so here. 

I wrote this arrangement especially for the occasion the week before Summer Studios. It’s a new setting of Ten Thousand Hours, my poem about what it’s like to experience a seizure while playing. The aim was to create musical journey through all of the stages of re-learning how to make music. In the process I really pushed myself to the limit- in a couple of the takes I did have some partial seizures. David really did a fantastic job of narrating, too. 

This poem is a very short snippet from my story Innervate. You can read the rest of it here

After performing inside the spaceship, I even got to go for a space walk! After sharing my fantasy of flying above the venue with photographer Ben Hughes, he came up with the necessary spacesuit (cobbled together from a multi-storey car park, a white cape and an upended plastic box) and we went and did it! I’m so in awe of Ben creating these incredible pictures. 

Liza Bec photographed by Ben Hughes at the Sage Gateshead, 2022

There are MORE videos from all of the other Summer Studios artists on the Sage Gateshead channel which are most definitely worth checking out, so do have a browse on there while you are at it!

Thank you to the whole Summer Studios team for all your support and help making all of this happen, especially Rianne and Matthew, such a welcoming and supportive team. I can’t wait to go back!