Gillian Dibden introduces the 2022 combined choirs York Tour: “Even getting onto the coach together has felt like a momentous occasion.”
Concert dates
- 12:30pm, Monday 18th April 2022
Selby Abbey - 5:30pm, Tuesday 19th April 2022
York Minster - 7:00pm, Thursday 21st April 2022
St Mary’s Priory Church, Old Malton - 5:30pm, Friday 22nd April 2022
Southwell Minster
Introduction
by Gillian Dibden MBE
We are all particularly excited about this mini-tour. Even getting onto the coach together – with music, luggage, and friends – has felt like a momentous occasion. The last two years have been a challenge for everybody, and this is how we have come through it.
The first Coronavirus lockdown, in March 2020, put on pause our choral development, with singing suddenly viewed as a dangerous activity. It was hard to bear both the silencing of voices, and the resultant effect on the fellowship that music brings.
In September 2020 we started up again with rehearsals outdoors, which we found extremely difficult with young voices, and not possible at all in the dark! We did a kind of ‘stop/start’ run of rehearsals, in accordance with changing government advice.We missed the continuity and progress we are used to, and most of all we missed the opportunity to sing to others.
Early rehearsals in 2021 were all on Zoom. I had really not wanted to do this; it seemed contrary to the magic of rehearsing together, loving the sound that we make, and ‘living’ the harmonies. However, I was very lucky that a senior member of our choirs was incredibly skilled with the Zoom process, and her expertise carried us through.
We managed four separate concerts for our four choirs in June 2021: short recitals, with the audience bringing their own chairs into the churchyard. The atmosphere was joyful. Our audiences had been longing to hear us again, and these proved to be truly memorable evenings.
I cannot thank our parents enough for the way that they have supported us. They did everything, from monitoring social-distancing about this mini-tour. Even getting to sanitising absolutely everything we might onto the coach together – with have touched.They were marvellous.
Rehearsals in a cold church, with the large doors wide open, were not particularly comfortable – but this was what was required, during this unique period. Our finances have been hit hard, but membership numbers have mostly stayed up: we are just about coping, despite the virus causing unpredictable levels of absence from one rehearsal to the next.
Having come through truly the most disruptive experience of a long teaching career so far, I seek to renew, and continue to find the best opportunities for our young singers. I am supported by excellent colleagues, including David Manners (a tenor lay clerk at St George’s Chapel,Windsor Castle), who has worked with our choirs very successfully for many years.Though a more recent addition, Ben de Souza has proved himself to be highly valued as a voice coach, sectional leader, and conductor. I am therefore delighted that he is able to work closely with the choir in this series of performances.
We are loving our music and the real sound of the choir has returned. Already we have had highlights: participation in the ‘Gabrieli Roar’ project, a joint evensong with Eton College Chapel Choir, the resumption of our annual evensongs at Windsor Castle, and staging concerts in a real auditorium setting. We know there is a future for our music and our choirs – and, with broad smiles, we are grasping it with both hands.
Gillian Dibden MBE
Director,Taplow Choirs April 2022
Programme
