March 2020 will go down in history as the month that changed the nature of music and choirs in our country. Gone were the regular weekly meet ups where all of our singing community, men, women and children from all walks of life met in one space with one shared passion to sing and to sing together. Gone was the magical moment when different voices come together and the scope of different vocal colours blend into something really beautiful. This was a deeply saddening moment for all choirs up and down the country.

However, what wasn’t gone were the voices and the spirit of these brilliantly resourceful people. What wasn’t gone was the technology that links us every day and would be a fundamental crucial factor in what was to become. Phones and tablets which ironically pull us away from the world so much of the time taking us into the world on the screen, were to be the one source that brought us all back together.

The idea I had of the Do Your Thing Choir Connective when one of our members, Carolyne, set a challenge for the choir to sing through a song by each person filming themselves singing one line each and seeing how far we could get. It was so moving to see the spirit of our choir come alive and I knew then what I had to do.

This global crisis shows us the human spirit on a daily basis, on the news and in the communities around us.The incredible NHS, the teachers, the pharmacists, the delivery drivers, the food retailers ….the list goes on and on. In our own communities, people set up groups to look out for our vulnerable members, restaurants who had to close their doors worked behind the scenes to make home cooked food for the elderly. Every day, another story springs up of the best part of the human spirit. We wanted to thank all these selfless people in the way we can.

As a choir, we have experienced first hand the importance of singing at times of sadness and adversity. We have witnessed the healing power it has and how it unites people. It was for this reason that we have made this video. Over 60 members of our non-auditioned choir who love the fact that choir is about the safety of singing in a group took up the challenge and sung solo for the first time in their own isolation for this project. The nature of this threw up huge personal challenges and at times that nagging doubt that almost prevented them finishing. However, we all knew the importance of this project and how our vulnerability didn’t come close to those on the front line and our community heroes and so they battled through their doubts and concerns and got to the end.

This project has shown us that for a time, our singing will change and we will all need to be virtual for a while to sing together but what will never change is our heart. For a while, we will do our thing isolated but together for the sake of the vulnerable members of our community. We will do our thing isolated but together so that our incredible NHS can do theirs and we will do our thing isolated but together for the sake of humanity and our beautiful world. This has connected us all. Please continue to do your thing by socially distancing so that we will all soon be in one room singing again and what a glorious day that will be.

Please help us by donating what you can to this incredible cause. Thank you. 

To watch our video for the NHS, please go to this link:

https://youtu.be/tFCDSBlS4Og