BAFTA-winning composer Jessica Curry is known for her deeply emotive classical and video game music, performed in prestigious venues like the Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House. But alongside her success, Jessica has faced immense personal challenges.
As someone requiring lifelong immunosuppressant medication, Jessica was forced into long-term shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic, enduring profound isolation and grief. After a five-year hiatus, she has reclaimed her creativity with Shielding Songs—a choral album celebrating resilience, love, and hope.
Here, Jessica tells us about her journey from grief and isolation towards creativity and hope.
'I had a horrible sense my life was about to change'
I have a disease that requires me to be on permanent immunosuppressant drugs. If I get any kind of infection, it is very challenging for my immune system to fight it off—in some cases, this can be fatal. I first received a letter about being clinically extremely vulnerable in March 2020, and at that point, I had a horrible sense that my life was going to irrevocably change.
I shielded fully for three years and never really went back out into society. It’s hard to describe the ongoing experience of intense isolation—sometimes to the point of madness. So-called 'Freedom Day' was a prison sentence for immunocompromised people. While most people were desperate to get 'back to normal', we knew that the overnight removal of safety measures would keep us inside for years to come—and it has.
'I felt my life slipping away'
It’s been such a hard five years. The loneliness, the sense of bitterness at the government partying when I couldn’t be with my loved ones when they died. Missing out on all the things that make life joyful—parties, concerts, friends, shops, cinema, holidays. Feeling your life slipping away. Lack of connection, feeling expendable, friends drifting off.
The claustrophobia of imprisonment and the pain of so many missed opportunities with work. Having to ask my teenager to shield with me at a time when their life should have been opening up. All of it has been an incredible challenge.
For three years, I couldn't listen to music—I’d watched my dad die on Zoom, and I’d lost my beloved aunty in the same way. The profound guilt at not being there for them was eating me away to nothing. I couldn’t go to their funerals because I was shielding, and I felt that the music that had always been inside me had died with them. This was a very low time. But something in me knew that my only way back to sanity and life would be through a return to music.
The album is a cry of hope
My new album, Shielding Songs, is a testament to survival. I am proud to still be here. It’s a choral album, and there’s something so powerful about people singing together. It’s not just the beauty of it—it’s the incredible sense of community and unity that choirs create. It’s a statement about solidarity and being together as one.
This is an album fundamentally about care and love. It’s also recognition for the people who help, for those who risk themselves to assist others in their time of need. It’s a cry of hope—to be kind, to be tolerant, to see each other, to not let hate and greed triumph.
Music holds your hand and says, 'you are not alone'
Rest With Your Dream is one of my favourite pieces on the album. It was written for my husband, Dan, who shielded with me and gave up so much of his own life in order to do so. He has been by my side every step of the way, and that piece is my love letter to him and an expression of pure gratitude. 'No other one shall travel the shadows with me; only you.'
I hope that listeners will take away a sense of someone walking alongside them in their journeys—whatever challenges they are facing. I think that’s always what my music has been good at—it holds your hand and says, 'You are not alone.' This isn’t a miserable album—it’s full of hope and beauty, so even if you don’t need your hand holding, then hopefully it’s still a wonderful and moving sonic journey.
You are not alone
The music industry still has a long way to go in terms of inclusivity. Studio days are long, places of work are often inaccessible, and I wish in general that handshaking would die a death! I would love it if people would offer to wear masks—even making sure hand sanitiser is dotted around would help greatly. Just being thoughtful, really, and understanding that not everyone has the same health privileges as you do.
To others who are still shielding: You’re not alone. You’ve been so brave, and you have sacrificed so much to stay alive. You will never receive a medal for the tenacity you show every single day, but do know that I’m one of you—I see you, and I stand with you.
Shielding Songs will be released on 13 June 2025. For more information, visit www.jessicacurry.co.uk