My early delight at the Arts Funding package the Government announced last week is sadly abating at speed. The absence of authoritative guidance on what music making is possible for amateur choirs in churches or elsewhere is causing enormous unhappiness and frustration to all the singers with whom I am in touch. The role of singing in maintaining and enhancing wellbeing, physical, mental and emotional, is fully documented. The period of isolation has been very difficult for choral singers. For many of them, this is much more than an entertaining hobby; it is a central part of their enjoyment of life.

This is nowhere more apparent than with the Military Wives Choirs, to my knowledge the largest network of choral singers in the country with 2,300 members in 75 choirs. Our mission is to bring women in the military community together through singing; the current restrictions - with no clear timeframe for abatement - is very debilitating for our members. Much ingenuity has been devoted to ‘virtual’ rehearsal, but anyone who believes this is a genuine alternative to live music making has not sung in a choir. This time has been tough in isolation; mental health and a sense of togetherness and community are exactly what singing in choirs is scientifically proven to provide.

The success of the heart warming Military Wives film clearly demonstrates the power of choral music to change people’s lives. Even if choral performance does carry some potential risk, we urgently need more research and guidance into how we can assemble choirs again and feel ‘stronger together’. At the moment, there is a mass of anecdotal scaremongering, but not much hard science. The Government’s welcome financial support is not enough; we need extensive and definitive research, as well as ingenious mitigations to enable singers to sing together again.  

Yours faithfully

Hilary Davan Wetton

(Hon. D.Mus., MA, FRBC, ARCM)

Principal Conductor City of London Choir

Associate Conductor London Mozart Players

Artistic Director Military Wives Choirs

Musical Director Jersey Symphony Orchestra