Page 23 - We'll Sing Coverage Book

“Singing doesn’t need to happen in large numbers,” he says. “It can happen in smaller groups
and people can be socially distanced and I believe that this can be done in a safe way.

“What I would like to see is some acknowledgment that we need to find a way through this
together. We are looking at the potential risk of stigmatising singing unnecessarily, and
making people scared to sing. We need to find a more compassionate and hopeful rhetoric
around singing. What are the ways in which we can get the thousands of singers in Scotland
doing the thing they love again?

“The standard of amateur singing in Scotland is very high – we really have some of the finest
choirs and as healthy a choral scene as anywhere. On the understanding that the virus is going
to be around for a long time even if there is a vaccine, how can we achieve a return to singing
together so that this core part of our identity in Scotland as a cultural nation isn’t lost?

“Performing large-scale choral works might be a thing that will take a long time to come
back, but the important thing is to get a conversation going where we can see the possibilities
and develop a road map through this. The Scottish Government is doing exceptionally well in
its communications, so we have to develop our choral way through this to bring to the table.
At the moment it seems we are a bit stuck.

“We mustn’t forget that for everyone who is in a choir in Scotland it is one of the most
important things in their life. It’s that thing they do every week, it is their way of expressing
themselves, an important part of who they are as human beings. We want to be able to get
that back into people’s lives again.”