Altrincham Choral Society returned to the concert platform last night after 700 days and it felt so good to be back. We sang with our hearts and the audience were so appreciative. All 3 choirs have now performed their first concerts back after similar periods away and all have shown tremendous resilience. The journey back has not been an easy one, especially having to focus on so much more than simply the music, but the joy of being in front of an audience again is simply wonderful.

Each choir should be very proud of their achievements and I know that every choir in the country has had similar challenges, but each and every choir, committee member and individual singer have all contributed. Not to mention the support of family and friends. On behalf of every single voice – thank you!

We can only hope now that we navigate the winter months successfully and that we can begin 2022 with an optimistic outlook and grab each and every musical opportunity that is presented and let us not forget that ‘We are the Music Makers!’

Yesterday saw the first concert since December 2019 with my Chesterfield Choir and Honley have had the opportunity to perform on two occasions already! Altrincham have to wait another two weeks.

The priority has been keeping rehearsals safe and ensuring we are all following the mitigations we have in place. Every choir has been exemplary in their approach and we have all worked hard to bring singing back to our members. But we have done it ourselves, there has been no guidance and no ‘how to get back to singing safely’ manual.

We have all put our own precautions in place and these have in many ways taken over as the priority. But, what struck me yesterday was that the choir sang with passion and commitment and the audience were seemingly grateful. It was a bigger audience than I had expected and indeed from some we received a standing ovation.

One message today conveyed the following sentiment “Beautiful, gentle and sweet. Respectfully powerful. Good medicine for all. Our hearts were lifted and our ears heard stunning music and voices”.

Doesn’t this just say it all? We have returned to music, but I doubt we shall be back to where we were in March 2020 until Spring next year!

But we have grown as a community and as singers, but perhaps most importantly we have learned how important music is in our lives and how grateful we are to have it back.