Date - 1st Jun 2018
Time - 7:30 pm
Location: King’s Community Church,Upper Northam Road, Hedge End, Southampton, SO30 4BZ

Saturday’s summer concert , ‘A World of Song’,  was a double first – a new venue (KCC, Hedge End – packed to the gunwales) and a new uniform (royal blue), both of which proved a massive success, with numerous positive comments from the audience. The programme took the audience around the world in song and the music was as varied as ever, from ‘Another Day of Sun’ from La La Land, ‘One Day Like This’ by Elbow and ‘Reflection’ from Disney’s film ‘Mulan’, to classics such as West Side Story, For the Beauty of the Earth by John Rutter and ‘Its a Classic’ (to music by Mozart).  

The evening started with the choir walking in to a tremendous opener of ‘Let the River Run’ by Carly Simon, with a rousing percussion ensemble.  As the evening progressed, the audience were treated to the Flower Duet, sung by sopranos Sandra Williams and Lin Kellaway, a hilarious solo by Roy Hogben of ‘Ill Wind’, which not only told the convoluted story of someone losing their horn, but also turned into ‘Two Ronnies’ style impromptu banter between Roy and Chris (our pianist), much to the audience’s surprise and delight.  Roy of course received a huge ovation.  The beautiful song ‘A Thousand Years’, from  The Twilight Saga, was hauntingly delivered by a group of eight singers, which touched everyone.  Sharon Thomas treated everyone to a reading of ‘Behind the Scenes’, which she wrote in light hearted verse, about what goes on at choir in order to put on a concert.  She possibly gave away too many secrets of how she sometimes gets around performing (or not, as the case may be), in that she confessed to a little bit of miming the odd word she’s forgotten!  I think we all do that at some point!  ‘Once Upon a Dream’ performed by Rebecca Williams was a delicate solo, in contrast to the final audience participation piece of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ – a fitting end to a concert bringing together both choir and audience. 

Many thanks go to our Musical Director, Lillian Sediles, (whose friendly encouragement and innovative teaching have given the choir the ability to perform to its best and sing from the heart), to David Farnell, our Assistant Musical Director, (who keeps us on track and enables us to perform with great detail to dynamics and delivery), to Chris, our pianist, (whose talent knows no bounds – see those fingers move!), to Simon (our friendly minibus driver), to all who helped with front of house and to our other Chris, our able and very affable compere, who brings the entire concert together.   Finally, a huge “Thank you” to our fantastic audience, without whom there would be no concert. 

We look forward to seeing you all at our Christmas concert on Saturday 8th December 2018 (2.30 pm matinee and 7.30 pm evening show), at Hedge End Village Hall.  Tickets will be available in November but you can always go on our website www.newmusicmakers.com  to reserve tickets.  We look forward to seeing you there!