British choirmaster, composer, and TV presenter, Gareth Malone, has launched an ‘at home’ digital choir initiative to bring the nation together and lift spirits through the power of music as coronavirus measures continue across the country.
‘The Great British Home Chorus’ has been designed to bring together both amateur and professional performers around the UK by encouraging them to sing with others online and reduce the incidence of loneliness among self-isolating individuals. Malone aims to connect music-lovers despite the closure of public communal spaces that would ordinarily be used for rehearsals. He was inspired by the viral scenes of neighbours serenading each other from their balconies in the midst of the lockdown in Italy earlier this month.
Malone told Classic FM:
We all need music in our lives […] I think radio is going to be so important, because you can’t just sit and watch TV all the time. You need to feel like you’re surrounded by people and part of community. And I think it’s very important we do active things and have a little project that is – in that wonderful way in the arts – very, very important and also utterly pointless.
Since launching The Great British Home Chorus, Malone’s team have had 9,000 applicants.
