Chichester’s St Richard Singers set to shut down

Founded in 1970, the St Richard Singers can lay claim to being the oldest chamber choir in Chichester. But the double impact of first the pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis has meant they feel they can no longer carry on.

“We will be giving our final farewell concert on Monday, June 26 at Boxgrove Priory during the Festival of Chichester,” said chairman Kirsten Scott.

“We have struggled through lockdowns with a diminished band of tech-savvy online singers and eagerly welcomed others back after this period of enforced silence. Sadly, we have been finally pushed over the edge by the cost-of living crisis and the inevitable price hike of our usual rehearsal and concert venue, St George's in Chichester where we had our musical home for more than 40 years. Paying more for a concert venue than the director of music on concert day is simply not sustainable for an amateur choir our size.”

Before the pandemic: “We had just appointed a new director of music that we were very happy with and we were singing and we were looking forward to our 50th anniversary concert in 2020 then the lockdown happened and obviously we had to suspend our meetings. We were writing and asking to be allowed to sing again but singing was considered too dangerous even though people were meeting at football stadiums. We were just not allowed to sing, and amateur musicians were really quite hard hit by that. We did Zoom meetings and we even sang online but obviously you needed two devices for that and not everyone at home was able to cope with that. There was only a small number that were able to participate. We suspended our subscriptions even though we still had running costs but at that time everybody was still committed. Nobody said that they were stepping back and then we were able to start singing in a field. I was just out walking and I found this field in Westhamptnett behind the church in the middle of nowhere which was nice and peaceful. We asked and were allowed to sing in the field. It brought its own difficulties but it was good in a way. Some people were still isolating and we were 13 to 15 people. Before the pandemic we were 35. It was very different but it was good and we sang a concert in Westhamptnett. But what really pushed us over the edge was the cost-of-living crisis. When we were able to come together again we had to start hiking out subscriptions. We almost doubled our subs and then we calculated that we could go on for another 18 months if we used up all our reserves but then the cost-of-living crisis started to bite even harder and our unusual venue started to increase its fees. That was the final straw. We called an extraordinary meeting. We are contractually bound to the conductor and we had to give notice. We looked at the financial situation and we just didn't feel that we could carry on. I'm very sad but I'm not the hardest hit. We've got members have been in the choir pretty much right from the beginning and it's probably been much harder for them. We've got 17 members at the moment and that would be doable but it is the cost of the venue.”