On one of her first nights at the helm, our new director asked the choir, “Do you read music? Raise your hand if you do.”
Well, ability to read a score is not one of the requirements for joining and we have no auditions, so it was a fair question.
To my surprise, my hand stayed down. Just what did Megan Henderson mean by “read music”? Hear it in my head, the way a composer, conductor, or professional performer would? Not me!
Immediately identify a note on the staff? Well, I studied violin, but that was in the treble clef and I sing in the bass clef and that causes a delay when I have to translate what I see as G to a the B it really is before I pipe up.
Sight read? Well, sometimes yes. For many of the notes on the page, I know how they feel or fit in my throat and on my tongue.
And then there’s the matter of keeping time. Sometimes I’m a stickler for the beat, but sometimes I miss. Just saying.
It helps being in a good section, surrounded by strong musicians. But then it’s also fun when we sing mixed, surrounded by the other parts instead.
So do I read music? I really should have raised my hand – halfway.
Jnana's Red Barn 
It’s not like reading a book, is it? It’s complicated, so many clefs. So many key signatures.
Not like prose, definitely, though sometimes it can be like reading poetry. Singers, of course, need to pay attention to the words, too, and that can make for a nice interplay between the two types of reading. And now you have me thinking about religious chanting of a text. My!
LOL Always pleased to be inspiring religious chanting of a text!
I am so with you! After more than 40 years singing in choirs, but with no formal training I know up from down, and value of a note,and at least in treble clef can name the note, (mostly), but I would not say I can sight read. My hand would be halfway up too!