Letter from our Musical Director May 2020

Dear Choir Member,

In these difficult times, I hope that you, your family, friends and colleagues are all safe and well. I have been giving some thought to how we might stay connected as a choir community when we cannot carry out our usual activities. I know that we would not usually be meeting on Tuesdays at this time of year, but our last term finished so abruptly, and it is looking increasingly unlikely that we will be able to snap straight back into normal business in August, although I remain hopeful that we might. For these reasons I am going to try to devise ways of keeping us together.

I have been in touch with various friends and colleagues who have sung with us in the past, and who are struggling, as effectively their livelihood is broken, their diaries are empty, and opera and concert contracts have been cancelled - in most cases without payment. The following soloists are offering singing tuition online, and have asked me to make choir members aware of this.

Judith Howarth (Soprano for Messiah)

Nicholas Mulroy (Tenor for Messiah)

Philippa Thomas (Mezzo for Israel in Egypt)

So, if you would like to have singing lesson with any of these eminent singers please let me know and I will put you in touch with them. St Margaret's is currently offering a lot of online music tuition, and I know that some of you are also having lesson from NESMS online. Please do not be sceptical about this concept - clearly it is not the same as a live individual lesson, but it is surprising everybody just how well it can work.

Choir members are entitled to a 20% discount from singing lessons via NESMS. This remains in place throughout this period and if you wish to continue with this, or start this afresh please get in touch with NESMS directly, and please feel free to ask me for help if you wish.

As a way of keeping us connected a little, my first initiative is a musical quiz. The instructions are all on the quiz sheet. I hope you enjoy engaging with this.

Kind regards,

Peter