BeVox community choir
Donation protected
BeVox is a large community choir, bringing joy and camaraderie to the hundreds of people who sing together, and the audiences we regularly perform for.
In January 2020, we began rehearsals for "BeVox does Broadway", a concert of showtunes. In March, just a few weeks before we were due to perform at Nottingham's Albert Hall, the Covid-19 pandemic put the choir in lockdown, and we haven't been able to meet physically since. Realistically speaking, it's likely to be at least 2021 before we can get together again.
The choir is about so much more than just singing. For many of our members, it's the highlight of their week - seeing friends, catching up, socialising. They regularly tell us about the life-changing impact the choir has had on them - it has given them more confidence, helped them through bereavement, eased the symptoms of health conditions from asthma and COPD to clinical depression. Having to stop our rehearsals and performances has had a major impact on the hundreds of people who are a part of BeVox.
We thought it was a terrible shame that all the hard work our singers had put into preparing our "BeVox does Broadway" concert wouldn't be seen by an audience. So, we embarked on a major project to put together a "virtual concert". We continued rehearsing over Zoom, and offered additional help to our singers to get them through the challenges that online rehearsals pose. Over 140 singers filmed themselves singing their vocal line for five of the songs from the concert programme, and sent those videos in to us. We edited those videos together and created a series of films, using 3D modeling technology and our skills as visual artists and audio producers. These films are now freely available for everyone to watch on YouTube.
Running the choir online during lockdown has been a challenge. At a stroke, we lost all of our income, and incurred a whole bunch of new costs. We refunded concert tickets (except where people generously offered to let us keep the money, or where we could offer the chance to defer those tickets for future concerts). We took on a whole bunch of new challenges, from mastering Zoom through to learning how to create the 3D models we used for our virtual concert. We remain determined to keep the choir alive, so all our members can continue experiencing the incredibly positive and life-affirming benefits of singing together.
We're about the embark on our first new "season" of rehearsal since lockdown began, and all of these will happen online. We have waived or significantly reduced the fees our singers usually pay, in recognition of the financial difficulties that many people are facing due to the pandemic. In doing so, we've become reliant on the generosity of others to keep the choir going. Our singers themselves have been incredibly supportive and made donations towards our running costs, but the fact is, we're losing money every month, and there's a limit to how long we can continue. If you're able to make a donation to help us, you'll help to keep the choir afloat until we can get back to physical rehearsals and concerts. We just need to survive until then - your donations will go towards our ongoing running costs whilst we have no fixed income from rehearsals or concerts. Once we're able to begin rehearsing physically again, and performing again, we'll be fine - we need to survive until then.
Throughout these challenging times, we've been focussed on two things - keeping our choir members connected to each other and to us, and trying to find things we can learn from the experience so we can become better as a result. We're determined to continue being a positive force in the lives of everyone who sings with us, and to share that with our local communities as much as we possibly can. Your support will help us to do that, and we will be grateful beyond words for any donation you're able to make.
Thank you, on behalf of our hundreds of members, and from us too.
In January 2020, we began rehearsals for "BeVox does Broadway", a concert of showtunes. In March, just a few weeks before we were due to perform at Nottingham's Albert Hall, the Covid-19 pandemic put the choir in lockdown, and we haven't been able to meet physically since. Realistically speaking, it's likely to be at least 2021 before we can get together again.
The choir is about so much more than just singing. For many of our members, it's the highlight of their week - seeing friends, catching up, socialising. They regularly tell us about the life-changing impact the choir has had on them - it has given them more confidence, helped them through bereavement, eased the symptoms of health conditions from asthma and COPD to clinical depression. Having to stop our rehearsals and performances has had a major impact on the hundreds of people who are a part of BeVox.
We thought it was a terrible shame that all the hard work our singers had put into preparing our "BeVox does Broadway" concert wouldn't be seen by an audience. So, we embarked on a major project to put together a "virtual concert". We continued rehearsing over Zoom, and offered additional help to our singers to get them through the challenges that online rehearsals pose. Over 140 singers filmed themselves singing their vocal line for five of the songs from the concert programme, and sent those videos in to us. We edited those videos together and created a series of films, using 3D modeling technology and our skills as visual artists and audio producers. These films are now freely available for everyone to watch on YouTube.
Running the choir online during lockdown has been a challenge. At a stroke, we lost all of our income, and incurred a whole bunch of new costs. We refunded concert tickets (except where people generously offered to let us keep the money, or where we could offer the chance to defer those tickets for future concerts). We took on a whole bunch of new challenges, from mastering Zoom through to learning how to create the 3D models we used for our virtual concert. We remain determined to keep the choir alive, so all our members can continue experiencing the incredibly positive and life-affirming benefits of singing together.
We're about the embark on our first new "season" of rehearsal since lockdown began, and all of these will happen online. We have waived or significantly reduced the fees our singers usually pay, in recognition of the financial difficulties that many people are facing due to the pandemic. In doing so, we've become reliant on the generosity of others to keep the choir going. Our singers themselves have been incredibly supportive and made donations towards our running costs, but the fact is, we're losing money every month, and there's a limit to how long we can continue. If you're able to make a donation to help us, you'll help to keep the choir afloat until we can get back to physical rehearsals and concerts. We just need to survive until then - your donations will go towards our ongoing running costs whilst we have no fixed income from rehearsals or concerts. Once we're able to begin rehearsing physically again, and performing again, we'll be fine - we need to survive until then.
Throughout these challenging times, we've been focussed on two things - keeping our choir members connected to each other and to us, and trying to find things we can learn from the experience so we can become better as a result. We're determined to continue being a positive force in the lives of everyone who sings with us, and to share that with our local communities as much as we possibly can. Your support will help us to do that, and we will be grateful beyond words for any donation you're able to make.
Thank you, on behalf of our hundreds of members, and from us too.
Organizer
Timothy Allen
Organizer
