27th March 2020

Update: ‘You say Coronavirus, I say Covid_19’

Whatever you call it, we are living in strange times. Phoenix, in line with almost all sensible UK citizens, are taking our responsibilities towards our fellow singers, family, friends and neighbours very seriously and therefore, we have stopped meeting every week to rehearse until this crisis is over.

But if you think that can stop us, think again!

We have set up a ‘virtual rehearsal’, starting at 8pm and running for the usual two hours every Thursday….the only thing missing is the trip to the bar afterwards. This has enabled us to keep up-to-date with everybody’s health and provides a welcome break from home ‘social-distancing/self-isolation’. We are using zoom (https://zoom.us), which allows Yulia to play backing tracks to us while we sing, unfortunately, in isolation. To enable all of us to hear the backing track, Yulia puts us on mute – and she is loving that mute button way too much for our liking!

We know that there are many virtual choirs that have started up to allow people to focus on something fulfilling and provide a new way of socialising – ‘Sing Out Strong’ (http://www.singoutstrong.co.uk) and Gareth Malone’s ‘Great British Chorus’ to name but two. If you have joined any of them, enjoyed the experience of singing and want to carry on after the storm has passed – we would love to see you and will welcome you with open arms (at 2 metres distance, obvs).

In the meantime, here are some photos of our first virtual sessions:

Keep safe and healthy - and we hope to see you all ‘in the flesh’ soon