The last time the choir met together at The Haven Centre was on the 9th March just before the first lockdown was announced. We had just started to prepare music for our Summer Concert. At that time nobody knew how long we would be unable to meet. Jean, our Musical Director decided to do a weekly newsletter to the choir keeping them posted as to the situation. It became obvious we would not be able to hold our Summer Concert with all the restrictions in place at the time. Jean continued with the weekly newsletter which included remembering members birthdays, anniversaries and encouraging members to keep singing. Also, choir recordings and videos of songs sung in past concerts. The situation was reviewed by the committee in September and it became clear that the Christmas Concert would also have to be cancelled.
Although the newsletter kept members informed it could not replace getting together to sing. We were encouraged to attempt singing with Zoom. This does have its challenges. Mike, Jeans’ husband, took up the challenge and we began with weekly zoom rehearsals in October. We have learnt as we gone along and, on the 14th December, we held our virtual mini-Christmas concert.