COVID-19 has changed many facets of our lives including stealing the joy found by choirs in song.

The SeaSide Singers choir is still here and looking forward to re-forming again after a year of enforced isolation.

The Choir started in 2009 and it currently has around 40 singers.

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The choir usually performs at concerts and events quite regularly but of course not in the past year!

The last time they gave a concert to grateful audiences was at the free Seniors Concert they present every year at the NSW Government Seniors Week in February 2020.

Diana Souter of the SeaSide Singers told News Of The Area, “In the dark days following the lockdown in 2020, 2021 was something to hold on to.

“The choir had already prepared a wonderful new program for 2021 Seniors Week when restrictions were reintroduced.

“How sad is that!

“No live gathering of choirs has been allowed anywhere in the country and their members, many of them single and elderly, love their music and the camaraderie of a weekly rehearsal and this lockdown situation hit them very hard,” she said.

“Aerosol spread is a phrase that became familiar through 2020 and we all desperately wanted the cure to work.

“We are all hoping that a vaccine would allow us to return to normal and with the hopes of musicians especially choristers to sing together without fear.”

Current NSW advice is that 30 singers can perform indoors suitably spread out.

The choir is looking forward to learning and presenting a new exciting program of old and new songs for a Spring Festival this year.

The SeaSide Singers are fortunate to be able to rehearse at the Community Centre at Salamander Way thanks to Port Stephens Council and meets on Tuesdays at 7pm.

Their motto is “Come Sing With Us”, with everyone welcome to join them in song.

By Marian SAMPSON