At the time of writing the intention is to go ahead as planned.

The audience will be masked throughout as required by plan B; we do not have to wear masks while performing (it will be quite O.K. to sing in masks if you want to) but while moving about and not singing we should. We are going to have to be creative about seating; I will explain in detail on Friday evening. We will also need to have a discussion on what we might wear as we will need to ventilate the room adequately.
Currently the audience numbers 34, which will be a good number but we need it to be about the 40 mark so please do your best to entice a few more in.

On Friday evening we need to nail all the unaccompanied items:
Gabriel’s Message, O Magnum Mysterium, O Holy Night, Silent Night, The Blessed Bird, Away in a manger, With Wondering Awe, Coventry Carol, Past three a clock and The 12 Days of Christmas (which will accompanied from 6 onwards).
On Sunday afternoon we will only have time to rehearse the accompanied pieces.

Timings for Sunday are:
5:00 Arrive – while we wait for the Orangery to be cleared assemble stands, lights and music.
5:30 Rehearsal – accompanied pieces in programme order
7:00 Rehearsal ends – leave Orangery “performance ready” and retire to the old kitchen
7:10 Audience admitted
7:30 Concert begins

Thank you for last Sunday – there was over £45 in the buckets. It was nice to see David Betts. The chapel was surprisingly warm, I don’t think the Orangery will be.

Here is an extract from an email thatI received today about Fanny Saywell:

She’s recently fallen out of bed and was unable to get herself back in. William her son found her and didn’t know how long she’d been on the floor. It was the second fall she’d had I believe in a couple of days. She’s now in Leicester Royal hospital. They put her in the frailty ward at first, then transferred her to the heart ward as she had atrial defibrillation and an irregular heartbeat.

I’m sure that she’ll be in our thoughts this weekend.

See you on Friday.