Elena Urioste and Tom Poster - Trailblazers

Several Enterprise Fund applicants are couples or households who made the most of being locked down together, seizing the moment to explore and share oceans of repertoire. Married violinist Elena and pianist Tom vividly captured the public’s imagination with their #UriPosteJukeBox, finding a following they are now keen to bring with them on further adventures.

In Elena and Tom’s own words:

'On 17 March 2020, we decided to record and share one music video for every day we would spend in lockdown. We named the project #UriPosteJukeBox and asked our virtual following what they’d like to hear. Over the next 88 days, we played requests ranging from Mozart and Messiaen to Britney Spears and Old MacDonald, premiered six amazing new commissions, and expanded the close-harmony kazoo repertoire exponentially! It was an exhausting but deeply fulfilling journey, and we were infinitely touched by the community which built up around the project.

Keen to build on all we learned and developed, and using our established request-based model as inspiration, our plan is to create a series of extended “JukeBox Sessions” - both live and online - featuring musical performances, conversations, and wellness tips for musicians of all ages and stages, but particularly aiming to inspire and interact with younger listeners. While keeping our duo as the core, we’ll be inviting friends of many backgrounds and musical persuasions from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective to join us in performance and discussion, so audiences will hear from a range of insightful, kind, brilliant musicians, in an honest, intimate setting.

We’re deeply indebted to the RPS Enterprise Fund and Harriet’s Trust for enabling us to bring this project to life, to upgrade our technical equipment (which has thus far consisted only of Elena’s iPhone), to bring in wonderful guest collaborators, and to share our music and our ideas as widely as possible!'

Here’s a selection of treasures Elena and Tom presented in the initial phase of #UriPosteJukeBox:

Follow Elena and Tom online:

Reflections on their #UriPosteJukeBox project: