The project “COVID-19, Droplets and Orchestras: What distance should instrumentalists and singers keep?” has been recently launched by two Parma institutions and supported by AEC – Association Européenne des Conservatoires. It has been launched with the aim of investigating different modes of the COVID virus transmission in the music world. The CEO of AEC, Stefan Gies, took part in the Press Conference at the Parma Conservatoire “Arrigo Boito” on the 9th of October, where the project has been presented to the wider public.
The research project of the University of Parma and the Parma Conservatoire involves the systematic study of the diffusion of the aerosol droplets of saliva produced while singing and while playing the main brass and woodwind instruments. The study, which is still in an experimental phase, is conducted based on the performances of singers and instrumentalists provided by the Parma Conservatoire.
The study is conducted with the use of sophisticated analysis techniques by research groups coordinated by professors Ruggero Bettini (Department of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences) and Sandro Longo (Department of Engineering and Architecture).
Due to the second wave of the coronavirus, studies on COVID-19 are on the table of the global agenda, and the collaborative project of Parma institutions is of particular importance, as its results could be used for mitigating the risk of contamination during the musical performances.
