Maldon Nub News aims to be supportive to EVERY element of the community from business and shops to people and charities and clubs and sports organisations.

Everyone is finding it tough at the moment and wants life to get back to normal.

We will be profiling some of these local businesses and groups regularly over coming weeks in a feature called UP CLOSE IN MALDON in the hope that we can be a supportive springboard for your full return to business as usual.

Today we talk to Emma Durrant, leader of The Sound Collective Chorus. During an in-depth Q and A session Emma reveals why she set up the modern choir locally, as well as what she as what she loves about the town's community and her gratitude for its support during the current crisis.

When Emma Durrant took out a local newspaper ad to find others who wanted to join her in establishing a singing group, she was stunned by the response.

The volume of responses was so high that Emma decided instead to start a modern choir – and The Sound Collective Chorus was born.

"I wasn't leader initially because I wanted to sing in the choir. It was collaborative, a collective and very equal. We held our meetings in Kelvedon and people came from all over the place. There were members from many different backgrounds and of different ages, right from the start, and they were all lovely."

For Emma, who had spent years working in the city in London and was a singer in her own time, the decision to start up the choir in 2006 was in many ways an experiment in reaching out.

"I lived in Colchester at the time and as a commuter leaving early and returning home late, I didn't know anyone where I lived until I started the choir," she says.

Then life moved on and when Emma became a mum 11 years ago, she gave up the choir, moved out of Colchester and while considering where she would settle, she found loneliness came calling.

"Being a new mum is a lonely thing for a lot of people so when I moved to Maldon I decided to start The Sound Collective again locally so that I would feel connected to the area."

Emma had moved to Maldon and the choir now has groups that meet in Maldon, Danbury and Great Baddow with around 130 members in total.

Maldon has been the first town that Emma has truly felt a deep connection with. She tells of how when she went on a holiday to Wales to stay in a beautiful market town, then suddenly realised that Maldon looked very similar and that she in fact lived in a beautiful market town already and just

hadn't opened her eyes to see it.

"I remember realising that I'd cherry picked this lovely location to visit and when I got there I recognised it! I think it is easy to rush around and not take the time to appreciate what we have on our doorstep. It was then I started to explore the area, eat out, shop locally and take the time to really 'see' our town. I love Maldon and am proud to live here."

The growth of The Sound Collective locally has seen it develop into a thriving community of its own.

"The first meeting we had, there was a queue of people snaking out of the building and once again, I was amazed. I saw that being part of a choir meant more to people than simply having a place to come and sing. It becomes its own community where people can put aside their everyday lives for a short while. It lifts people up, recharges them, creates wonderful connections and fast becomes a place of support and friendship as well as great singing."

While she is now the manager and leader of the choir, however, Emma's emphasis remains very focussed on the importance of the members making and taking their own individual experiences from it.

"There's no hierarchy. It's a flat system where I provide the platform on which people create their own special moments."

Yet it has been lockdown that has made Emma realise that she was perhaps missing out on something in her role as leader beforehand.

"As leader, I was proud to see the support members give each other but wasn't fully part of that myself as leading the choir meant an element of detachment from that experience. But during the pandemic the template for how the choir worked previously was shelved and a new plan of how to keep the choir together had to be drawn up. I asked the singers what they wanted and that established a feeling of all being in it together where they in return supported me, in a new way."

And this determined woman who has such an obvious zest for life and love of community is very calm and matter-of-fact in her analysis of the pandemic and how it affected and continues to impact her.

"Initially, there was a lot of concern and confusion about how I could keep the choir going," Emma says, "I was aware what the loss of it would mean to people, and me, and knew that ending the choir and subsequently dissolving the community, which was now more important than ever, would be the worst option. I didn't know what to do but knew I needed to try to work out a new way forward."

So she reached out to others, to colleagues who led choirs in countries already affected by lockdown, including in Spain and Far Eastern nations. From them, Emma got tips on how to run the choir remotely using Zoom, which she hadn't even heard of before.

"It was really hard at first," she says, "and I wasn't sure if it was something that the singers would

want especially as they can't hear each other sing due to time delays. This seemed crazy but better

than nothing so I persisted"

But to Emma's surprise, the members were hugely supportive and soon her creativity was really able to kick in. Recordings of songs were made by putting together individual voice clippings sent to her and there was eventually a drive-in choir event. In between, there were quizzes and bingo on Zoom

with a real party atmosphere.

There have been other lovely moments for Emma, too, like finding out she had been shortlisted in multiple categories in Maldon's community service recognition awards – following many separate nominations from her members. Then just yesterday (Saturday, 12 December) it was announced that Emma has won the Creativity category of the awards.

Emma says: "This really is an award for the whole choir and all its members."

As to the future? Things are hopefully looking a little brighter with a possibility of an end to the pandemic on the horizon?

"What I think this pandemic has revealed is the extent of loneliness out there. It wasn't so visible before and I think going forward some of the things we have found during lockdown could work to help that. I'm planning on setting up some new choirs that bring together people with a shared

experience for example a choir for people who can't get out so easily, for widowers or for new mums, and the idea is that alongside singing they'll form a community of support for one another."

Emma smiles. "I know I will have to adapt and keep on adapting as the goal posts keep on moving, but it's something I've got used to now. We just find a way to carry on."

Anyone who would like to register an interest in joining The Sound Collective can email Emma at the link here.