The name New Music Makers was carefully chosen as we wanted to sing New and Contemporary Music, particularly music of our generation. At the time the Beatles, Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel and many other groups were everywhere, so we set about finding sheet music that would challenge us, albeit, in one or two part harmonies.
Stuart Harding became its conductor and continued to conduct us for the next fifteen years, during which time we progressed to four and eight part harmonies. We enjoyed singing and performing all over the area and traveling quite far afield with some full blown musicals such as ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, ‘Come Together’, ‘Ride! Ride!’ and other popular individual pieces. During that time, as individuals, we all had a ball and became a very tight knit group of friends who have stayed close ever since.

In 1978, Stuart, Tom Rodaway as Chairman, Pat Halifax who was Mayor of Eastleigh at that time and Tony Sharp went to Kornwestheim in Western Germany to set up a twinning between us and a German male voice choir by the name of Liederkranz Kornwestheim. This we did and in 1979 we started what was to become an association that lasted for 30 years. During that period we had numerous exchanges, staying in each others homes,
having great fun together and making long and lasting friendships, some of which are still enjoyed today.

We also had great fun doing pantomimes. This we did during the Christmas period, mainly in the Village Hall where we would easily fill the hall for four performances in a week. Collectively we would make and paint scenery in a huge garage that we were given access to, free of charge, on the corner of Hobb Lane in Hedge End by a delightful elderly lady by the name of Mrs Denny, a member of the Methodist Church. We were indeed so lucky.
After Stuart decided to hang up his baton and after a long search we found a replacement in Olivia Lee, a school teacher and devout Catholic who taught music and also instructed young children in playing the violin. Several of her pupils played at some of our concerts and some eventually became professional musicians. One of the highlights during her time was a weekend away in West Wales in a town called Llandovery where we sang to a packed audience in a Catholic Nunnery. Olivia grew with the choir and everyone loved her, she would throw herself into anything we wanted to do including pantomimes. Olivia
lead the choir for about twenty years, eventually deciding to retire to Dorset with her new husband, David Curtis, who she met through the choir, David being one of the basses. We were all delighted for them both and sang at their wedding. For a number of years after she retired we as a choir were invited down to their garden in Highcliffe for BBQ’s, sadly Olivia died in her garden after a heart attack just a few years ago.

After Olivia came Marianne Temperley in 2005 who sang with the BBC Singers in her early years and later taught singing in her home professionally. Once again the choir were lucky in their choice, Marianne being a real lady was so easy to work with. When she joined us David Farnell, who was one of our tenors, asked if it would be possible to conduct a few of the pieces, she was only too pleased to let him spread his wings and encouraged him as much as she could. From then on David was recognised as the Assistant Musical
Director and they worked in true harmony together. She had a warm personality and brought some glamour to the choir. One of the more memorable occasions, although very sad, was when we were asked to sing in Winchester Cathedral at the remembrance service for the two firemen who died whilst trying to deal with a fire in Southampton. The Cathedral was packed with serving officers from all over the country, together with dignitary and close family members, and including a live television broadcast. Somehow we managed to sing two very emotional pieces within a highly charged atmosphere. Marianne was with us for a total of seven years before retiring to pastures green.

Michael Goldthorpe took over from Marianne, he being a contemporary of hers whilst singing together with the BBC Singers.  Although in his seventies, he possessed tremendous energy.  He conducted several choirs, taught singing professionally and travelled afar to his various commitments.  Michael was blessed with a brilliant tenor voice which he sometimes demonstrated to the choir, but never in front of our audiences.  It would be fair to say he was a brilliant instructor, teaching us a lot about the use of the voice and breathing.  He brought his own style to the choir with his quite rigorous warm up routines, which included physical exercises and voice control.  He was a natural teacher.  We may not have been the youngest choir around, but could well have been the fittest!  Under his stewardship we tackled some quite difficult and challenging pieces, recording some of these for national competition.  Sadly, after four years at the helm, Michael decided to retire and we of course wished him well with his new endeavours.

Lillian Sediles has now taken over the reins as Music Director.  We were delighted to welcome her into the New Music Makers’ fold in September 2016.  Hailing from the USA, Lillian studied music education with performance honours at Syracuse University.  She graduated in 2008 but continued her studies, receiving two masters degrees, one in choral conducting and the other in music education.  Not only does Lillian conduct, she often gives recitals and it is a treat to hear her beautiful mezzo soprano voice.  She is also an accomplished musician, playing the violin, piano, flute and guitar.  Living with her family in Hamble means she is local to us.  Lillian gives her all to the choir, making rehearsals fun and inspiring and we are thoroughly enjoying receiving the benefits of her musical ability.  Her fresh approach to teaching us voice and breathing control, with the correct use of vowel sounds, keeps us on our toes and we really feel we have learnt a lot at the end of each rehearsal.  It is lovely that on occasion, Lillian swells the ranks of the alto section, so she is very much part of our choir, being within the very heart of it.  We are very lucky to have her both conduct and sing with us.  For further information on Lillian’s musical expertise, please visit the link to Musical Directors.

It should not be forgotten that during our many years as a choir we have been blessed with some extremely talented piano accompanists, without which, any of our musical directors would have found it impossible to continue. At this stage it would be wrong of me to name any of them for fear of missing any of their names off such a talented list but I can honestly say, without fear of contradiction, having been with the choir from its conception, that you could name on one hand the number of times we were ever without an accompanist throughout the entire life of the choir.

An organisation is only as strong as the organising committee that conducts its day to day business. The New Music Makers have always been very fortunate in having strength in that department, always working very closely with its musical directors but not allowing the MD’s to dictate the music we sing or how we run our organisation. We have a separate music committee who decides on musical choice and content and we rely on their ability and experience. We have also been fortunate over the years to have had many people
with abilities in other direction such as stage management, set building, choreography, sound requirements, video recording and even tea & coffee making.

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