It is so important to get your priorities right and sometimes so easy to be thrown off course. This week I have not be thrown off course and I have focused on two things – my family and my choirs!

It has been a frustrating time for choirs having been prevented from rehearsing indoors in numbers of no more than 6 since May 18th! It is difficult to understand why since there has been no further evidence to support the notion that singing is higher risk. What I should point out is that it would appear that it is only higher risk if you sing in an amateur choir!

Professional singers, opera choruses, west end casts, fans at darts and football matches can and have sung recently.

The Royal Choral Society successfully performed Messiah at The Royal Albert Hall on 30th May, and they all behaved in a professional manner. If evidence were needed that singing, with appropriate mitigations and safeguards in place should be allowed, then there has been plenty of it over the past two weeks. But the Government will not change its mind on choirs just now and we must hope that on June 21st we shall be allowed to resume.

My singers will be following a rigorous risk assessment; will have read and understood our risk reduction strategy; will have completed a health declaration and upon arrival will avoid mingling, will sanitize, and will sit at a designated seat; will be distanced; will wear a mask as directed; will sing, paying attention to the dynamic level; will be in a significantly reduced duration of rehearsal, not share music and will not participate in a break to prevent close contact.

Oh, did I also mention that the majority of those wishing to return will have received both vaccinations and are prepared to undertake lateral flow tests prior to a rehearsal. I appreciate that caution must be the watch word, but there must be parity and decisions made should be understood.

I do not profess to know everything about this subject, but neither should some MPs who seem to have become specialists in aerosol and droplet transmission. Some have also been incredibly supportive and understand our frustration.

We must all challenge our energies into what is important to us and remain focused and positive. I say this knowing that sometimes I do allow myself to be thrown off course and upon reflection I know it serves only to distract me.

But for the moment I am focused and will continue with my priorities!

It’s Sunday evening and I am still at my desk after what seems like a very long week and weekend. I bought a newspaper today in the hope that I could sit and catch up on things. You will all have received or be receiving information from me about stepping up our lobbying to ensure that we can sing again and hopefully soon. If you can help, please do as it will make a big difference!

I am planning to zoom a rehearsal from our venues in the coming weeks to ensure that the technology works when we are allowed to return, and I will be doing this until we can all get back into meeting face to face. I will also keep writing my blog to ensure that those we do not connect with online remain up to date.

This week has been about appreciating the importance of family and friends and all the things we hold dear to us. We stopped singing in March 2020, but it lives on in our hearts and minds and even though our weekly connection is not the same, it will be soon.

Let’s remember the special moments until we can create some more.

There are so many stories that we could all tell and share in the hope that others can learn, will draw strength from, and will encourage confidence by them being told. But increasingly we see those with a platform and the privilege of being able to make their story public doing so with eagerness and without thought to those who have no such luxury. Usually, these celebrity fuelled stories have two goals – self-promotion and financial gain.

There have been struggles in life for many, but they are no less important or difficult. Being in the public eye brings with it a downside, but it also brings many benefits. Like many of you I have been humbled by the real stories of hardship and heroism that this last year has shown us. Perhaps it is time for everyone to be humble!

It was a magnificent weekend for Leicester City, but less so for choirs and amateur music making. Step 3 of the roadmap is confirmed, and we wait patiently for the relaxation of restrictions. We also wait, not so patiently, but anxiously for the updated guidance from the DCMS. Who would have thought that 18 months ago, the prospect of scouring the internet and relevant websites and chat groups to find out what the current guidance is, would have been so essential? But alas it is!

But why mention the football in the same breath as choirs! 21,000 fans assembled at Wembley and cheered their respective teams on, sang ‘Abide with Me’ at full voice and even forced the pundits to say that the crowd was so loud that they could not hear what was being said. It was by all accounts a joyous occasion to welcome back the supporters.

21,000 people, albeit with proof of a negative test and I am worried about 30 members (the venues restriction) of my choirs coming together! The majority having received both vaccinations – prepared to be socially distanced by 2m, to wear masks as directed and to reduce their time together to an hour and to sing with less volume. I appreciate that the match was a test event, and my choirs are ‘only’ amateur and of course there is a big difference between ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ singers isn’t there!

But these displays of organised crowds coming together just make me frustrated. I have not conducted a choir for 14 months and I have waited patiently, like many others in the same situation. I have thought long and hard about the welfare and well-being of everyone, as have our committees, who have been exemplary in support of the members.

So, we wait for the glimmer of hope that will be the guidance to say we can sing again, but in the back of our minds the full lifting of restrictions on June 21st is in doubt now as we tackle a new variant.

I want us all to support each other in rehearsal this week, to be positive and encouraging and to know that soon it will be our turn!

All I seem to do at the moment is think about the future. When will things be back to normal? I am teaching, albeit with some school restrictions in place, but I go out and work. My choirs continue online, but behind the scenes we are refining risk assessments, analysing return data from members, liaising with our venues, exploring technology requirements and planning future concerts. We await confirmation that Step 3 will go ahead and that indoor rehearsals can take place. But it comes down to one thing – how safe is singing? There is no data so we can’t tell. But out in Leeds today the mood was different. Shops open, many more people than my previous visits and a burgeoning of outdoor cafes which gave the city a real buzz. But there were hundreds of people in close proximity to each other, yes they were outdoors, but nevertheless closer than ever before and from Monday 17th we will be allowed to eat and drink inside. There is still a little nervousness around singing and understandably so, but we have seen 6000 attendees over the two days of a mini festival in Liverpool. There were no positive cases reported following 100s of mask wearing fans watching the snooker in Sheffield. Other similar events are being planned, including theatre productions announcing opening dates, so it would seem it is only a matter of time before we can sing again. We will tread cautiously, and we will be careful for the remainder of the year. But we will grow in confidence as we take small steps back to normality.

The choral world has taken a massive hit, alongside brass bands and orchestras and we all want to be back together. But there will be changes. I think we will all look after ourselves a little better. We will care more for each other and we will stop occasionally to find time to enjoy life rather than racing from one thing to the next.

I know I have tried my best for what I naively thought would only be a few weeks in lockdown, but who would have thought so many rehearsals and concerts would be cancelled and how many 100s of zoom meetings would need to be scheduled. In the meantime, let us love those closest to us, let us look forward to being able to sing again and let us hope that we can emerge from this experience stronger and more united and that we have learned from our mistakes and avoid it happening again.

Happy Bank Holiday Monday everyone! Social media has been around in many forms for around 40 years (according to the internet), but it is in the last 20 or so years that the upsurge in the worlds use of social media has increased. Facebook appeared in 2004 and Twitter in 2006. Both have revolutionised the way in which many communicate and receive information. For some though the sound of the gentle thud as letters come through the post box still hold an excitement. I know, that for me I still enjoy receiving letters. Whilst at university, travelling mostly by public transport, I would use the time to write, usually to my Gran who wanted to know how things were going. Today of course, we sit at or with our many ‘devices’ and type and then whoosh the message has gone. Frustration ensues when the reply is not immediate, but let’s not forget that not everyone attaches the same importance to this method of communication. We still need time to reflect on our answers and yet can reply swiftly to correct an error.

This last week a Minister misspoke and for those who were ‘listening’ sent the choral world into melt down. For many the moment passed them by, and the status quo remained. I am not criticising anyone here, just an observation that perhaps to be ignorant of a mistake can save a flurry of activity, only to be calmed by a correction being made two days later. In my humbled opinion, the mistake should not have been made in the first place, especially in the current climate.

We all want to believe that things will be better in the long run and I believe they will. I follow the data and keep up with the news and have far too many hours of screen time on a daily basis for my own good.

I think we all accept the reality of the situation, but sometimes a little escapism goes a long way to lift the mood. We want good to triumph over evil, we want to live to fight another day and we want to believe that ‘all’s right with the world’.

So, do I wish I hadn’t been drawn in to two days of speculation over whether the parliamentary answer was right or not. Well, yes I do, it would have saved me a lot of time! But I am glad I had the opportunity to scrutinise the comment and be engaged in its journey.

But had I not been aware of it, my week would have been free from frustration, and I would have been blissfully ignorant. Maybe all I need to do is turn off my ‘phone and sit in the garden and watch the blossom fall from the tree; and in that moment time would stop and I would be happy. Let’s have more of those moments.