All posts by Chris K

Rehearsal 7 September 2023

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all,
I hope you have had a good rest from all the singing that we were doing towards the end of last term, and managed to get away somewhere nice during the summer break.
Well, its back to the grindstone ready to rehearse for our Christmas Concerts on the 9th December at the Hedge End Village Hall.
We will also be leading the Carol Service at Royal Victoria country Park, in the chapel, on the 16th December.
Another date for your diary is the 4th November, where we will be holding a Skittles Evening at the Hedge End Village Hall. More details for this will follow later nearer the time, but put the date in your diary.
Here is a message from Lillian concerning this coming week’s rehearsal:-

I’m looking forward to being back this Thursday for our first rehearsal for the Christmas concert 2023!
This week, I’d like to rehearse the following:
Believe
Brazilian Christmas
Tidings of Comfort
Let It Go
White Winter Hymnal
Merry Christmas Everyone
Wonderful Christmastime
First Noel/Pachelbel
From A Distance
I’d also like to rehearse in the same seating order we just did for our last concert in Hedge End Village Hall.
Thank you,
Lillian
The Local Vocals are performing again on Tuesday, at Netley Court, at 1.45pm, and we are short of ladies, so if you are available please let Eunice know.
We are still considering a venue for next year’s Summer Concert, but we have agreed that we will doing only one concert next year, not two like we have done in the past two years.
Once the minutes of our Committee Meeting have been agreed, they will be put onto the website under the member section, so that you can see what we are doing on your behalf.
Well, that’s about all for now.
See you sometime next week.
Bye for now.
Eric

Newsletter

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all,
I thought I had better touch base with you all to let you know what happened at the AGM if you were not able to make it to the meeting.
The main topic of conversation was the proposal from the Committee that we increase our subscriptions from £16 per month to £20.  You would have noticed from the accounts that had been circulated before the AGM, that we made a loss of £1857.24 this past year, and although we have a bank balance of £3650.88, it was felt that we cannot continue to make a loss on the general running of the choir with the shortfall being made up from the profit we have from our concerts, otherwise we will not have anything left to spend on music and costumes in the future.  It was agreed unanimously that we would increase the subs to £20 per month as from the 1st September, so can you all make sure that you reset your standing orders.
The existing Officers and Committee were re-elected, with the exception of Ellie Best, who is leaving the choir to move to Australia.  We accepted a late nomination on the night and Gen Marsh was elected to take Ellie’s place.  The make up of the Committee is as follows:
Chair  – Eric Gerrey
Vice Chair  – Sarah Turl
Secretary – Maureen Pay
Treasurer – Sharon Thomas
Committee Members:
Margaret Ballard – Minute Secretary
Eunice Deuchar – Local Vocal Rep
Louise Staniforth – Archivist
Jerry Gamble
Gen Marsh
Music Committee:
Music Librarian – Tony Jardine
Sop Rep – Hilary Green
Alto Rep – Maggie Jacobs
Tenor Rep – Percy Knight
Bass Rep  – Eric Gerrey
Musical Director – Lillian Sediles
Assist MD – Chris Allison
There was a discussion about our uniform and what we should wear in the future, and the Committee will look into this and report back to the choir.
One thing that was also discussed was the use of Zoom, as it is costing us £144 per year to use it, and it was felt that although it had been very useful during the pandemic, no one was using it now unless they were not able to come to the rehearsals.  It was suggested that we could use WhatsApp in future, and if we see a spike in infections over the winter period, we would then look at re-instating the zoom.
We are also looking at using a different venue than KCC for next year’s Summer Concert, as we only made approximately £150 profit from this year’s.  Again the Committee will look at what options there are and will report back.
Future Dates:
7th September – Return to rehearsals
9th December – Christmas Concerts
16th December – Carol Concert RVCP
25th April – Private Concert – Bitterne URC
1st June  – Summer Concert
20th July – Summer Spectacular
As some of you may be aware, Hedge End Methodist Church is celebrating their centenary next year, and we have agree to perform a concert for them as part of their celebrations, as we are the longest running group that uses their hall. We are in the process of agreeing a date and once we have it I will let you know.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will sign off, and hope you enjoy the rest of your summer break.
Regards
Eric

Well Done – Top Hits!

Lins Emails
Good morning to you all,
Well, what a day we had yesterday.
From the start when we arrived at the hall at 10am, there was a buz in the air, and suddenly there were all the members running around and setting up the tables and chairs, sorting out the crockery, putting together the cake stands and getting the cakes ready.  Even when most of you went home to change, there was still a charge in the air, and in the end, what a show we put on.
Here’s a message I received from Lillian –

“Well Done – Top Hits!”
Hello Choir!
I must say you’ve really blown me away this concert. I had to reflect after our performance today on all our previous performances and I can honestly say that this was the best performance I have experienced with this choir! You really made the top of my charts. I am so proud of all of you today—your hard work really paid off and I think your intonation was EXCELLENT, never been better. You were so expressive with your faces, engaging, and knew the music inside and out. I look forward to more of this as we resume in September 🙂
You’ve made me so proud and I hope you are proud of yourselves. Have a wonderful holiday, and once again—fantastic performance today! The best ever.
All the best,
Lillian
I even had one of the audience who had never been to one of our concerts before phone me up last night to thank the choir for an excellent afternoon.  She lives near in St Johns Road, and had decided to come see what we were about.  She has sung in a choir for 20 years, and although she had heard most of the songs before and even sung some of them, she had never heard such good arrangements before, and even wants to come and join our choir as we seem to have something different to what she has now.  She also runs her own support group for Alzheimer’s and when she looked at our website and saw that we had the Local Vocals, she is very interested in joining in with that. she had brought her auntie with her and her auntie has dementia, but she was joining with all the songs and thoroughly enjoyed herself.
Well, not much more I can say, but a big thank you to all help set up and then stayed to help clear up, and will be there this morning to get the equipment back to the lockup.
So I will end and remind you of the AGM on Thursday, and if you cannot make it then, I will see September 7th.
Bye for now.
Eric

Programme for Summer Spectacular

Lins Emails
Good evening,
As promised, here is a copy of the programme for Saturday.
Also, it has been agreed that we will not need to memorise any of the songs, but if you are confident enough to sing a song without the music, still use your folders as if you were using them ,then we will all look the same.
Again, many thanks to all that responded to our plea for raffle prizes and cakes, it seems that we now have enough.
See you all on Saturday.
Regards
Eric
pdf icon Programme-2023-Spectacular-1.pdf

AGM Papers

Lins Emails
Good evening,
I enclose a copy of the Chairman’s Report and the Musical Director’s Report ready for next Week’s AGM.
Whilst writing I am making a plea to you all.  We are desperately in need of more raffle prizes and more importantly more cakes, as at the moment we do not have enough of both.
The cake list will be put out tomorrow night, so if you have not already put your name down for a cake or two, please consider putting your name down tomorrow.
Also, if you have any raffle prizes, can you bring them along tomorrow as well.
Bye for now.
Eric
pdf icon CR-2023.pdf
pdf icon NMM-MD-AGMletter2023.pdf

This Week’s Rehearsal

Lins Emails
Good morning to you all,

I hope you have had a good weekend.

Here is a massage from Lillian concerning this week’s rehearsal:-


I hope the last two weeks have gone well! This Thursday we will try to run through the entire programme.

On Saturday, we have the Village Hall from 10.00am so any assistance to help set up would be appreciated as we need to set up the tables with the crockery etc ready for the afternoon.

Also, we are having our AGM on Thursday, 20th July, and that will be our last meeting until e return in September on the 7th.

Lillian has asked me to pass on this announcement:-

I’m putting on a recital on Thursday 24 August at 7:30pm at All Saints’ Eastleigh Parish Church. It’s a charity concert for starting a new independent classical school in Bishops Waltham. I’ll be singing a selection of songs themed around summertime and Sophie Aynsley will be accompanying. Tickets are £10 per adult, £3 for under 16s, free for under 5s.


Well, that’s all for now, and don’t forget the the Local vocals are seeing at Snowdrop Place tomorrow afternoon – normal time 1.45pm.

See you soon.

Eric

Fwd: Christmas Music 2023

Lins Emails
Good afternoon,

Here is a message from tony regarding the Christmas music.

Hello all,
Your Music Committee has already chosen the music for this year’s Christmas programme, somewhat earlier than we’ve been used to.  This means I’ll be able issue it before our summer break. It means you’ll  have your music ready from the start of the first rehearsal in September. Newer members will also have enough time to buy their own copy of ‘100 Carols for Choirs’ (*see note below). This is the only music NMM asks you to buy yourselves.
I’ll be distributing your music at the next two rehearsals, 6 and 13 July.  Don’t worry if you’re not going to be at these rehearsals. You’ll be able to collect your music at a later date. I’ll advise about that when I know what remains to be done. Here is our chosen programme:
New Music
Merry Christmas Everyone – Percy Knight has made a very kind donation allowing us to buy a download-and-print licence to cover all the choir. Eric Gerrey has kindly organised the printing.
Songs brought forward from last year
Grown Up Christmas List
Last Christmas
This Christmas
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
White Winter Hymnal – small group of up to 12 or 13. The music will be issued in the autumn to those taking part in this song.
Songs from the library
Believe**
Brazilian Christmas Carol – possibly men only but everyone will have a copy anyway
Christmas Shopping Blues – ladies only
From A Distance (Christmas version)**
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Mary Did You Know?
The First Noel/Pachelbel’s Canon
Wonderful Christmastime
Song from your personal music library
Let It Go**    I’ll make sure newer members have a copy but I’ll also be trying to issue your personal libraries in the next couple of weeks. I’ve spoken to a couple of you about this already.
**To be sung as a group of three songs from winter-themed films
Songs from ‘100 Carols for Choirs’*
Gabriel’s Message – #79, page 315
Wexford Carol – #21, page 97
Audience participation carols also from ‘100 Carols for Choirs’*
Joy to the World
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Silent Night
Twelve Days of Christmas – afternoon
Hark the Herald Sing – evening
 
*’100 Carols for Choirs’ is widely available online, with next day/few days delivery quite often. You can choose between perfect or spiral bound versions. The spiral bound is usually a little more expensive than the perfect bound but either should cost around £25. Speak to me if you want to know more.
Best wishes
Tony
NMM Music Librarian