In the depths of lockdown, former members of Taplow Youth Choir delighted their erstwhile leader, Gillian Dibden, with an unexpected gift: a ‘virtual choir’ video, with alumni singing Charles Villiers Stanford’s setting of Heraclitus.
The brainchild of Ben de Souza, who sang with the Youth Choir between 2010 and 2015, the project took less than a fortnight to coordinate.
“As soon as I suggested the idea to a group of old Taplow friends on Facebook, there was immediate support and enthusiasm. As alumni we constantly reminisce about Taplow [Choirs] and wish we could sing together again.
“Choral singing is such an exciting thing, and being able to do it with your friends is even better. But, obviously, ‘real’ choirs across the country – and indeed across the world – have been unable to rehearse since social distancing laws were introduced.”
“My hopes for the project were to get people singing together again, because it’s so good for morale, and to produce a new recording of an old choral favourite. I wanted to put a smile on Gillian’s face and allow her to see familiar faces making good music.”
“As alumni we constantly reminisce about Taplow and wish we could sing together.”
Ben de Souza
Thus, the self-titled ‘Taplow Choir Alumni’ group was born. Formed entirely of past members – many of whom, though not all, still sing regularly in some capacity – the participants were asked to film themselves while listening to a ‘click track’ to ensure everyone kept in time.
The submissions came mostly from bedrooms across the south of England but, in one notable case, a recording was made almost 5,000 miles from Taplow Village Hall.
Soprano Laura Cooper, who sang with the choir between 2009-13, currently lives in the Cayman Islands where she works as a Teaching Assistant. She says: “It felt so wonderful to be a part of the choir again, even just virtually.”
Laura, who went on to study Music at the University of York, adds: “Some of my fondest memories were made in Taplow, creating beautiful music with such talented people gave me goosebumps each week!”
The song chosen was ‘Heraclitus’, which featured on the Youth Choir’s 2013 CD. This meant “it was familiar to most of the singers”, says Ben.
The job of editing the footage together fell to fellow contributor, Ross Kelly.
“I had intended to do the video and sound editing myself,” Ben explains, “but I may have ‘run before I could walk’. Not only did I have no experience of editing, but also my computer was too old for the software so it kept crashing!… I’m very grateful to Ross for finishing it off.”
Ben, who completed a Master of Music in Choral Studies course at the University of Cambridge, credits Taplow Choirs with shaping his career. “I always say I wouldn’t have been as fortunate in my musical career as I have been without Taplow. It moulded me musically and developed my confidence as a singer, and later as a conductor.”
And Gillian’s reaction to the video gift? “She was delighted!”, says Ben. “It was her idea to put it on the website, which was a nice thing because it means this can be seen by lots of people and hopefully encourage people to join the choir.
“It’s a good demonstration of the quality instilled by the organisation, but also goes some way to showing the social side of Taplow, and the lasting bond that alumni formed in the choir.”