Seaford Choral Society

SEAFoRd CHoRAL SoCiETy iS BACk wiTH iTS FiRST CoNCERT iN Two yEARS!

Since COVID, singing has become something of an extreme sport. The projection of aerosols, number of people, and its indoor nature, puts choral singing right up there with nightclubbing and aerobics as dangerous pastimes during a viral pandemic.

We were less than two weeks away from our spring concert in March 2020 when our committee made the tough decision to shut down, even before the first official Lockdown. After a few months we joined the virtual revolution and tuned into Zoom rehearsals. It kept us singing and was a lifeline for many.

We started rehearsals again in Seaford Baptist church this September and have taken all precautions to keep each other safe. It’s taken some adapting to, but it turns out singing in masks is easier and sounds better than you’d think. We dressed up warm so we could keep the doors open; the sopranos (in the worst of the draft) wrapping themselves in car blankets on the coldest nights. But it’s been worth it – we’ve not had a single COVID case and have been able to keep singing together all term.

We decided a full concert would not be safe but dressed up in our concert finery and invited a small audience to St Leonard’s church for our final rehearsal on Monday 22nd November. The choir spaced out in the pews and our audience sat in the choir stalls and behind us in the back rows. Then we stood up and sung our way through the concert programme.

It still felt like a proper performance and was an emotional experience. We sang our hearts out in the joyful masterpiece that is Vivaldi’s Gloria; our conductor Colin Hughes nearly falling off his podium in his efforts to keep us all together despite our distance from the organ. range of music we learn with SCS and this is a beautiful, but rarely heard piece with glorious soaring melodies (the sopranos really get a workout!) and complicated harmonies to test all parts.

Highlights were the spontaneous round of applause our audience gave us when we ‘landed feet together’ at the end of the complicated runs of Amens in the Gloria, and listening to our whole tenor section sing the beautiful solo from the start of the Credo. With no ticket sales we couldn’t afford soloists, but it gave us the unique opportunity to perform several of the solos together as a choir. The wonderful mezzo soprano Rebecca Hughes also treated us to some of the soprano and alto solos.

So, Seaford Choral Society is back and sounding better than ever. Join our Facebook page so you don’t miss our next concert (which we hope to be able to invite you to). If you’d like to join us, we welcome all members and start rehearsals again on January 10th. Details are on our website.

Alison Mowbray

We had a rest while our accompanist John Eady mesmerised us with Bach’s Fantasia for organ. John told us about the piece so we could hear as we were cast down into hell in the second movement and rose with the flames licking round our feet in the third. Then finally, Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai. I love the

february ISSue DeaDLINe: frI 7th jaNuary

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