A couple of times recently I’ve found myself sharing a choral acquaintance with someone I know and been told ‘Small world!’. But should people be all that surprised? How many removes am I from most active (by which I mean singing in at least two choirs) choral singers in England?
I think three should probably do it. For example, one person for whom I have sung was, at the time I first encountered them, in charge of some 500 singers. Add to that all the singers they have previously worked with, and we’re into four figures. Consider all the people those thousand-plus people have ever sung with, and by this one route I am 3 degrees of separation from a very large number of people. And that is starting with only one of the hundreds of people I’ve shared a concert platform (or church/cathedral choir stall) with over the years.