One more week of online/virtual rehearsals and I know we are all ready to have some time away from the screen. Back in March, many of us had not even heard of Zoom, let alone how to harness the technology to allow us to stay connected. But many of us worked through the teething problems, persevered, and succeeded. It has been a learning curve for us all! I have missed those members, who for whatever reason have not connected with us online and I am looking forward to seeing them all again when we can start to rehearse face to face. I hope that my weekly musings have made you realise that you have not been forgotten and that you are just as important as those who I have seen each week. There have been many acts of kindness throughout the past few months and feel that I have made great friends with those I have seen each week. I will try even harder to connect and draw us all back together when we can meet, as regardless of what you have or haven’t done, or how you have connected, you are all still an important part of our singing communities.

Zoom has taught me one thing! Faces can betray your innermost thoughts and seeing hundreds of faces on screen each week has been an interesting experience. I have learned to read people’s moods and even when mistakes are being made whilst singing muted, I have come to know what those mistakes are and have been able to remedy or support them. But your faces, even when silent, speak volumes!

We all need to remember the many kind things that have been achieved over the past months and in going forward to remember to listen to others as well as think before speaking. Everyone is important and their views should be respected. I have witnessed so much negativity in the press and social media and at times have found it quite disturbing. But never far from the surface has been individual acts of goodness.

Many of us have welcomed each other into our homes on a weekly basis and we have attempted to make online interactions seem normal. But what we must all do is value the contributions each of us makes whether big or small and when we are back together to appreciate everyone. It will take time for our choirs to come back fully, but until then let’s work together to support each other through the next few months until 2020 is a distant memory.

I have always been an emotional person, but more recently I seem to have become even more so, perhaps the emotional musical highs that I experienced on a weekly basis have become diminished and those emotions are now deep within me, ready to be released. I think that our collective experiences of being back in live music settings will impact us all when we least expect it! Until then……!