Please be advised that there will not be a rehearsal on Wednesday October the 27th 2021.
This is not connected in any way with the ongoing Covid-19 situation and normal rehearsals will resume on Wednesday November the 3rd.
This section will be updated with all of the information for members to attend rehearsals in a safe way. This is based on a Risk Assessment and coming from that some specific Guidance to Members. There will be a responsibility on everyone to take precautions to protect themselves and the needs of others while we once more ‘find our voice’.
The source document is the risk assessment, which outlines the known problems and the mitigations which are being put in place to minimise the possibility of infection.
There is also a summary of this as Guidance to Members.
These documents will be updated if regulations, guidance or circumstances change. Members should note that it may be necessary for rehearsals to be cancelled at short notice if circumstances change and they should regularly check for email circulations before attending.
The Annual General Meeting of the Society will take place on Wednesday 8th September 2021 starting at 7.30 p.m. in Sunderland Minster. The meeting will be as brief as possible to allow for new changes to be put in place for the first rehearsal in our new start.
The Agenda, minutes of the last previous meeting and details of the accounts are available below :
Our Annual General Meeting due to take place on Wednesday 2nd September 2020 is CANCELLED.
This is due to the current public health situation, which is also preventing us from starting our usual rehearsals until further guidance is available and we can ensure the safety of members taking part. You will find links to many of the usual reports that would be published before the AGM below as pdf files.
Very sadly, given the public health situation, it has been decided that the Society needs to suspend rehearsals with immediate effect and cancel our forthcoming concert on April 4th. This is to protect members, audience and other performers. It is not possible at the moment to predict when we will be able to resume but we will keep you up to date with any developments. The ‘Singalong Social Evening’ (and practices for it) are also cancelled.
Fortunately the scores for St.John Passion belong to the Society and so there is no need for their immediate return. Please keep your copy safe so that it can be returned when we resume. Who knows we may be able to sing St.John at Easter 2021. We appreciate that there are other practicalities which will now need to be sorted but we are on the case. Our activities are insured through Making Music and we are checking this against cancellation in these unusual circumstances.
It is important that this message gets out to everyone, so please could you check with your usual contacts within the choir that they have seen this email as we don’t want anyone turning up on Wednesday, and convey our apologies to any potential audience members. It is certainly a time for remembering others, so please sustain contacts even if we are not physically getting together at the moment.
Best wishes. Take care and keep safe.
P.S. This is not the first time that the Society has had to postpone a concert. A performance of the Verdi Requiem Mass was due to be given on 17th February 1979 but the weather prior to that date was so bad that neither the orchestra or the soloists were able to guarantee to reach Sunderland. It went ahead on 1st April 1979.
Alongside our musical activities, the Society is required to have some specific policies to encourage good governance and ensure that we meet some legislative requirements. These cover Health & Safety, Safeguarding, Equal Opportunities and Data Protection & Retention.
All of these policies have recently been reviewed and updated. To ensure that all members have easy access to these policies, please find below links to each of the policies :
BCS Equal Opportunities policy
BCS Data Protection and Retention Policy
If any member of the Society has any comments, concerns or suggestions then please raise them via the Secretary.
From Wednesday 11th March 2020, the remaining rehearsals for the St. John Passion concert will start promptly at 7.00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you at that time.
Please note that our next rehearsal on Wednesday 4th March will start promptly at 7.15 p.m. To allow for this change the ‘singalong’ group will also start earlier at 6.30 p.m.
Our rehearsal on Ash Wednesday – 26th February 2020 – will take place at Sunderland Minster between 8.30 p.m. and 9.45 p.m.
Please note that this is different to previous arrangements and that there will be a service taking place in the Minster before our rehearsal, so please avoid disturbing that by arriving early. Due to the short timescale there will be no coffee break on that evening.
Just in case you can not put your hands on the rehearsal schedule for the St.John Passion please find a copy below – which was correct at publication but may be subject to amendment as rehearsals progress:
Date To be rehearsed
January 8th Chorus Number 1 plus Chorales No.3 and 5 and 11
January 15th Numbers 2a and 2b
January 22nd 12b Chorales Numbers 14 15 Choruses 16b 16d Chorale 17 Chorus 18b Rehearse Chorus 21b 21d 21f Chorale 22 Chorus 23b 23d 23f
January 29th chorus 25b Chorale 26 Chorus 27b Chorale 28
February 5th Aria no.32 Chorale 37 Chorus 39 And Chorale 40
February 12th Chorus 1, 2a, 2b Chorales 3 and 5
February 19th Chorale 11 chorus 12b Numbers 14 15 16b 16d
February 26th Chorale 17 Chorus 25b Chorale 26 Chorus 27b Chorale 28 Aria 32
March 4th Chorale 37 Chorus 309 and Chorale 40
March 11th Rehearse all of part 1
March 18th Rehearse all of part 2
March 25th ???
April 1st 7.30 Rehearse All
April 3rd 7.30 Rehearse All
April 4th 2pm Rehearsal (Full)
7.30 p.m. Concert
