Dear Singer
If it is not too late to do so, I send New Year greetings to all members in the fervent hope that, before the end of it, possibly even well before the end of it, we will all be singing together again. At the moment, however, it is obviously too soon to hazard a guess as to when this might be, but your committee reviews and discusses this at its every meeting which now takes place about once a month.
As a very outline plan, nevertheless, Tom envisages the possibility of putting some sort of ‘informal’ concert on later in the year, the date for which will depend on lockdown rules and vaccination progress, which could be rehearsed for a few weeks on zoom so as to be ready to go live when we can. It would possibly include some pieces we have already rehearsed or know, accompanied by piano, not an orchestra, interspersed with commentary from Tom, and possibly not as long as usual. Music copies would have to be printed from the internet.
In the meantime we have the most enjoyable weekly zoom meetings hosted by Tom (thank you again Tom), and accessed by about forty of us each time. (This means that another forty or so do not, and I particularly hope that you are faring as well as can be expected at this time.) Sessions this term will include more opportunities for some active singing than was catered for in the previous term’s programme in response to requests from some singers for this. To that end I canvassed the membership at the end of last year to see how many would like to form a specific NCS zoom choir. There was such a very tiny response in favour (7), and there are so many opportunities outside NCS with pop-up choirs, virtual choirs etc., that the committee felt it best to focus our energies on our current programme and plans. Apologies for raising the hopes of those seven who had hoped for something otherwise.
Your committee, and particularly Treasurer Hilary, would like to thank the many members who so promptly paid a subscription last term whether it was just for that term (£30) or for the whole year (£90). Subscriptions for this term would be most welcome now. Thank you.
Di Nicoll has continued the work on the new website started by her and Jenny Ward (thanks to both), and it is looking very good. New features will make accessing it easier and more up to date. When the website goes ‘live’, David Quas will relinquish his position as website manager which he has carried out impeccably for a long time now. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him very much for his assiduous attention to detail, timely updates and swift and dutiful transmission of emails and information that have come to his attention in his role (which will pass to Di Nicoll); and all this completely invisibly as far as almost all of us are concerned! Many thanks, David.
I will continue to write regularly to keep you updated with events and the committee’s deliberations on your behalf. In the meantime, without being too starry-eyed about it, I really hope that there are better times ahead in the foreseeable future.
With very best wishes to you all,