via GIPHY

Performing adds a bit of stress - for everyone. We know that some choir members feel a range of things, from a bit of pressure because of needing to brush up the notes, through to real anxiety about standing up and singing in public, even as part of a group.

It’s stressful for those of us out the front too. Have we paced the learning well enough so that the choir peaks at just the right time - confident but not stale? Have we picked the right music to make a coherent, enjoyable concert? Have we built enough resilience into the choir over the weeks that even with the extra stress of public performance, they’ll still make a good sound and remember enough of what they’ve learned? Have we focused on the right things? Will it be fun for them? Will it be fun for the audience? Will there even be an audience?

So why do it? There are a few choirs who don’t ever perform - they just meet and rehearse, and when they know some songs…well, they just learn some other songs.

What could be wrong with that? Nothing at all, probably. We always say that each rehearsal should feel a bit like a yoga lesson; even if an evening on the sofa was initially a more inviting prospect, the feeling at the end should be “I’m so glad I made the effort, I feel better at the end than I did at the beginning.”

So what does performing our work offer? And why should anyone come and listen?

Second question first: Because it sounds great (most of the time)and it’s fun to listen to! If you’re in the middle of the choir, and you’re only too aware of the crunchy bits, you might not realise just how great the whole thing sounds. But it’s what we work so hard to do. All that banging on about vowel shapes and resonance and using your singing voices rather than your speaking voices - these are the “details” that lift the sound of the choir into something lovely to listen to. And our audiences really do enjoy our music, and are genuinely moved and uplifted.

We haven’t been able to perform to an audience for so long, we’ve forgotten how much joy it brings. People might come along out of politeness or family obligation but whatever their reason is for being in the room, our job is to give them a gift. And that gift is our best attention and our best singing in that moment.

In fact, our love - of singing and of them personally or of humanity. (I know that last thing’s become stretched pretty thin over the past 3 years, but let’s remind ourselves how it goes.)

Of course, sometimes there are mishaps, and that’s live performance. In those moments, it’s up to the Choir Leaders to manage the moment, and we do. The choir’s job is to prepare as well as you can (given all your life circumstances etc etc), and then come to the performance with that attitude of contributing to team effort, and trusting each other and us.

And in those exact things lies the answer to the first question about what performance offers to us, the choir:

It calls out our best work. We find that little bit of extra self-discipline that performance requires that takes us beyond just singing together in a rehearsal. It challenges us to put in that little bit of extra work to be the best we can be. It inspires us to work together and rely on each other. And then sometimes we surprise ourselves - we are better than we thought! Not just individually but as a collective.

And then it calls us to give away the joy and the love we experience, both in our music and in our community. And then the joy and the love come back to us….

The preparation and anticipation can often feel a little hard…but, as someone who really knew about performance, said: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Ah.”