Staying gleeful on Friday nights

Before writing this story I invited myself along to one of the Atmosphere Glee Choir’s Zoom sessions. Despite the intruder, they were extremely welcoming and were just the pick me up I needed on a cold, dreary Friday night.

The Atmosphere Glee Choir usually meet in person – they practice together and sing at events across Nottinghamshire. They are a family and a global pandemic can’t stop them from singing together.

This was clear when I joined their session. That week’s theme? Musicals! Not my speciality, but Angela (the host) put the words on her screen and with our mics muted we followed her lead and belted them out.

The Atmosphere Glee Choir usually sing in person. Here they are at Southwell Minster with the Lord Lieutenant after performing at a big event hosted by the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

As a non-singer (I haven’t been in a choir since I was at first school, and even then I was relegated to the back) I was relieved that my mic was muted. But I did wonder how this would affect the session. Would it feel barren and empty? Absolutely not!

While the choir were following the words on the screen and singing to the backing music, I was looking at their video streams. And they were they going for it! The muting of the mics was simply another way of making it inclusive for everyone.

But this didn’t mean I didn’t hear any of them sing. In person, they would have solos and take the lead. On Zoom, they unmuted their mics and picked these parts back up.

Their enthusiasm was clear online, it must be electric in person!

During ‘This Is Me’ from The Greatest Showman, Jenny was on mic singing her solo and Nadia chipped in with her solo in ‘Sister Suffragette’. These were the more familiar songs.

As an amateur, I mumbled and jumbled my way through ‘Do Rai Me’ and ‘Edelweiss’; impressed by the members professionally singing along.

Before long, it was time to end the session and say our goodbyes. Rather wonderfully, we finished with a rendition of ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain’ where members wrote their own verses. It was Halloween, so of course she was wearing pumpkin pyjamas.