Durban - The Pietermaritzburg Amateur Music Society (Pams) has been dissolved, the onset of Covid-19 and all the difficulties brought on by lockdown having taken its toll on dwindling choir numbers.
People were simply too scared to return to choir practice after the lockdown, the society said this week.
“We started 2020 on a high with great plans to attract younger members from a wider, more representative community,.
“For the first time we had a small budget for marketing. We partnered with the Drakondale choir and were rehearsing fantastic music, having lots of fun. Then the first Covid-19 lockdown happened, and we had to cancel our first concert.”
Pams chair Helen White said they hoped “another more representative choir will come from the ashes of this one as I do believe that a community choir is needed in Pietermaritzburg”.
The society was born after the demise of the Pietermaritzburg Philharmonic Society in August 1997.
A highlight on music lovers’ agenda has been Handel’s Messiah, first performed in Pietermaritzburg in 1864. Pams picked up the baton from previous generations and did not miss a beat, proudly producing this great oratorio every year until Covid.
“Messiah has become the most performed choral work in the capital, delivering more than 150 concerts since its first performance 158 years ago. Singing this great piece of music with its dramatic storytelling and brilliant tones of hope and lightness has made it to the top of many a soloist and chorister’s bucket list,” the organisation said in a statement.
Other performances included the works of Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Haydn, Ramirez, Rutter, Fauré and Sibisi along with lighter works from musicals, carols, and other jolly tunes.
White expressed gratitude to friends and members for the monetary donations they had made to Pams over the years.
She also thanked Pams music director Botes Gresse and accompanist Jacques Heyns for the “great contribution” they had made to the choir.
The Independent on Saturday