In Part 1, I looked at some of the more obvious reasons why choirs begin to falter: the impact of Covid, ageing membership, toxic behaviour, over-ambitious projects, and too many concerts.
In this second part, I want to explore some of the longer-term and less visible causes — the ones that creep in gradually or hide behind apparent success.
Choirs need to promote themselves in order to recruit singers, get people to come to concerts, buy CDs and so on.
But does your public face truly reflect your choir as it wants to be?
There is a big difference between succeeding at all costs and not bothering to make an effort. Neither brings true satisfaction.
The secret is to pitch somewhere in between: to take the work seriously, but to not lose sight of how relatively unimportant it is compared with what else is going on in the world.
I saw an interview with George Clooney the other day and he pointed out that “You learn nothing from success. You learn everything from failure.”
Fear of failing is what holds people back. Yet failure is how we grow and learn.