Shaw on the nature of the choir:
“Any worthy amateur choral organization is built around only a single idea extended in two ways: a mutual and high regard for the music which is being performed, and a mutual and high regard for all the people with whom it is being performed. A distinguished amateur chorus is so materially the product of devotion and self discipline that when these cease to present there is no chorus.”
– Robert Shaw, Nov. 4, 1961
(from The Robert Shaw Reader, p.16)
In choir, it’s not enough to love the music. You have to love the people, too.
The best way to show both is devotion to the rehearsal.