All posts by Chris K

Rehearsal 8 February

Lins Emails
Good afternoon,
Firstly, here is a message from Lillian regarding our rehearsal this coming Thursday:-

Hope you are enjoying our song selection for this year’s summer concert.
I’d like to rehearse all together this week:
Africa
Human
Chili Caliente
Rocketman
Take Five
Rhythm of Life
One voice
Another Day of Sun
When you Believe
Kindest regards,
Lillian
Secondly, I have finalised the date for the Annual Dinner which will be held on the 9th March at the Prince Consort, Netley.  The cost for this will be £27.95 per person, and we need a £5.00 deposit per person as soon as possible.  I enclose a copy of the menu together with the form so that you can fill in your choices.  I have added the option of Tea or Coffee to the menu to stop any problems at the end of the dinner.
Well that’s about it for this week, so I will either see you Wednesday at Local Vocals or on Thursday at the rehearsal.
Bye for now.
Eric

doc icon Annual-Dinner-Menu-2024.docx
doc icon Annual-Dinner-Choices-2024.docx

Rehearsal 1 Feb

Lins Emails
Hi there,

Thank you for a productive rehearsal! This week, I’d like to have the women stay at 9:15pm and dismiss the men early.
The running order is:
Rocketman
Come What May
Take Five
To Make You Feel
Don’t Cry for Me (this is for the spectacular)
The Music’s Always There
Human
Africa
Ladies:
Wherever You Are
Africa
Have a great weekend,
Lillian

Latest Committee Meeting Minutes

Lins Emails

NEW MUSIC MAKERS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

08 JANUARY 2024

Present:

Eric Gerrey (Chairman), Sarah Turl, Eunice Deuchar, Sharon Thomas, Jerry Gamble, Maureen Pay, Margaret Ballard,  Louise Staniforth, Gen Marsh

1. Apologies none

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting:
Agreed by all as correct.

3. Matters Arising:

The Christmas concerts

Both Christmas concerts were very successful, and the afternoon was nearly sold out.

There were good comments afterwards, and the children enjoyed Father Christmas.

The decoration boxes had excellent instructions on them, thank you Louise.

We discussed a move toward more recyclable with less plastic, but noted we had used green recyclable paper cups.

A note for next year to remember – we don’t need to put up the 2 mics up in the roof – Toby advised this.   EG


4. Correspondence :

Email from Anita Hill who wanted to join the choir, with her sister (limited experience of singing in choirs) – Mo replied back with details but has had nothing back.

Email from Lin – about receiving correspondence concerning NMM to her old address – she has to let the companies know herself, to remove her address from their mailing list.                                                       MP

Lin was also unhappy about Local Vocals emails going to her old email address – Eunice has sorted this out with her.


5. Finance:

The bank balance is £5176 compared to £5166 last month 

We haven’t been paid by Applemore yet, Eric to chase                                                                EG

The Christmas concerts had a profit of £871 with a total expenditure of £993

Sharon went through her report

Church hall hire on the 21st – Eric to chase for refund                                                                  EG
 

6. Publicity

There is not really any publicity at the moment, just a bit of promotion on Facebook

The next concert is 1st June at KCC

 

7.Website

Emmy is not back until the end of Jan, but the website is back up and working again.

8. Forthcoming events

25th April Thursday afternoon – Chris to decide music

11 May Methodist Saturday 7pm – Same music as summer concert

1st June summer concert KCC – Ask Chris if has any pianist wanting to do solo, or Toby play sax, Emmy play Flute etc.  Eric to do email to choir                                                                                                        EG

23 June Fareham Rotary

20 July Summer Spectacular 2.30pm-have solos to make different to 1st June.  Mo to book the village hall 9am to 7pm, Eric to email Mo contact details                                                                              MP and EG

Maundy Thursday rehearsal – Sharon to find hall Thurs 28th March for our rehearsal                    ST

 

9. Local Vocals

2 excellent concerts for Dementia group in Fareham and Eastleigh

There is 1 every week for 3 months

A new home by Holly Hill has asked, and is delighted we will go – email says about 1 to 10 people

Otterbourne may be a long way for some to travel, there is only 5 so Eunice will cancel the next one.

Will ask in choir who wants to go in the future, to determine if this is viable                                EG

New music is still wanted asap

 

10. Choir welfare

Eric to remind choir not to go if they have a cold, especially to Local Vocals as residents are vulnerable

Everyone is reminded to make sure each month to see if there is anything to be aware of here.


11. AOB
a) Uniform

It was noticed at the afternoon Christmas concert that there was a mixed uniform on the ladies – it was decided that it was much better to have all jackets or all no jackets, to be consistent.

This must be agreed by the committee before each concert.

b) Contents of lockup

Mo has sorted out and put all the tops onto wooden hangers in the lockup

Louise found boxes of red jackets, dresses and fabric from Lin – it was decided to throw these out

The lockup to be sorted out on Saturday morning – 17th Feb meet there at 10am – Eric Sharon Mo Gen 

The lockup is Lok ‘n’ Store Hedge End 

c) Applemore students

This was discussed, there are several ideas to think about. Maybe a grant to pay for Chris? Eric to talk to Chris        EG

to find out Chris’s  thoughts  on what is worth doing.

d) New Laptop

A new laptop has been purchased and was given to Mo

It has Windows 11, Microsoft Office 8gB RAM 250 gB storage     Mo to set up                             MP

e) Extra sectionals

Eric to say no money for extra sectionals to Lillian, but our rehearsals will finish at 9.45pm for extra time to rehearse solos etc                                                                                                                                       EG

f) Social events

Eric has a shuffleboard – a fun team game, or a beetle drive, or Lin’s horse racing game, for a social evening on 27 April in the village hall – Mo to book                                                                                              MP

Annual dinner mid March at the Prince Consort pub, Eric to get details                                        EG

Meeting closed at 10.20pm


Next meeting Monday 5th February 2024 7.30pm at Eric’s house 

We will review the music audit report then

 

 

Rehearsal next week

Lins Emails
Hi there,
Here is a message regarding the rehearsal for this week from Lillian.

Dear all,
Thank you all for trying out the new seating arrangement last week. I think it is already working out better in terms of our choir sound!
I’d like to rehearse together until 9:15, and then rehearse the last 30 minutes with just the men, please.
Here is the rehearsal order:
Africa
Viva La Vida
When You Believe
One voice
Shenandoah
Someone to Watch Over Me
Chili Caliente
Men:
Matchstalk Men
The Music’s Always There for You
Human
Kindest regards,
Lillian
Just a reminder that if you are feeling at all unwell, please do not attend the rehearsals, as there are a lot of bugs going around at the moment and when there is a crowd of people together, that’s the time they have more effect.
Well, that all we got for you at the moment, so see you on Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric

Fw: Rehearsal plan for Thursday 18 Jan

Lins Emails
Hi there,
Here is a message from Lillian regarding our rehearsal this coming Thursday:-

Hello choir,
The plan this week is to rehearse the following songs in this order this Thursday.
Come What May
To Make You Feel my Love
Take Five
Rhythm of Life
Rocketman
Java Jive
Africa
Viva La Vida
Kindest regards,
Lillian
I also enclose a copy of a revised seating plan that Lillian would like to try this week.
Other than that, I don’t think I have anything else for you at the monent, so see you on Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric

pdf icon Seating-NMM-2024.pdf

This Week’s Rehearsal

Lins Emails
Good afternoon to you all, and a Happy New Year,
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmastime.
Well, we are back for a new season, and for this week’s rehearsal, Lillian would like to start on our new songs, some of which you will not receive until you get to rehearsal on Thursday.
She would like to sing through the following:
Human
The Music is Always There for You
Come What May
To Make You Feel My Love
Take Five
Rhythm of Life
Rocketman
Java Jive
Chili Caliente
It had been suggested that we have some sectionals again at the start of this term, but when we looked at what it was going to cost, the Committee decided that we could not afford any so we have come up with the following – our rehearsals will finish at 9.45pm, and when Lillian wants just the men or women for their songs, we will finish earlier and use the rest of the time of the rehearsal for that purpose, and we can also use that time for the small groups that will be singing “Rocketman”.
The Committee also looked at the programme for the Summer Concert and the Summer Spectacular, and although some songs have already been kept back for the Summer Spectacular, it was agreed that for the Summer Concert we will only sing as a full choir, and then introduce solos, duets etc for the Summer Spectacular, thereby having a different programme for each event.
To help members have a rest between songs at the concert, it has been suggested that we have some musical pieces such as Chris on the piano, Emmy with her Flute, Lillian with her violin, and Toby, our sound engineer, with his saxophone.

On the matter of rehearsals, can I remind everyone that if you are not feeling well, please do not come, as it has been reported that there is a new strain of Covid going around which is particularly infectious, and we do not want the choir going down with it.
Here are some dates for your diary:-
Annual Dinner – Prince Consort, Netley –  Saturday,16th March – provisional
Bitterne URC – Thursday, 25th April, 2.30pm – programme tba
Beetle Drive – Saturday, 27th April – provisional
Hedge End Methodist Church Centenary Concert – Saturday, 11th May, 7.00pm
Summer Concert – Saturday, 1st June, 2.30pm – KCC Hedge End
Fareham Rotary – Sunday, 23rd June, 2.30pm – Stubbington
Summer Spectacular – Saturday, 20th July, 2.30pm – Hedge End Village Hall
For the Hedge End Methodist Church Centenary concert and the Fareham Rotary concert we will be singing the same programme as our Summer concert.
Well, that’s all for now, so I will see you on Thursday.
Bye for now.
Eric

Summer Programme 2024

Lins Emails
Good morning to you all, and a Happy New Year,
Well, its a start of another season, and the Music Committee have been hard at work sorting out a programme for the summer.
I enclose a copy for your attention so that you can have your music ready for when we start back on the 11th.
Tony, our Music Librarian, has also been busy getting the music together which you do not hold, and which will be available on our first rehearsal.
The programme really looks good, with some old favourites, and some new ones, which we hope you will enjoy.
I have been reliably informed that the Local Vocals have a full programme for the coming months, and we look forward to seeing everyone who is able to come along and sing with us, as the residents certainly enjoy our singing.
There are several dates that you will need to know about, but I will confirm them once we have had our Committee meeting next Monday.
Well, that’s all for now.
See you soon.
Regards
Eric
pdf icon Summer-Programme-2024.pdf

Applemore College Concert

Lins Emails
Good afternoon,
I enclose a copy of an email I have received from the organiser of last night’s concert:-

From: Carol Eskriett <caroleskriett@btinternet.com&gt;
To: ERIC GERREY <ericgerrey@aol.com&gt;
Sent: Friday, 15 December 2023 at 09:54:39 GMT
Subject: Thank you!
Good morning Eric
On behalf of the Foundation can I just say how much we enjoyed the choirs contribution to our Christmas concert. They were fantastic! To say they added a touch of class to the event would be an understatement. They looked professional, sounded professional and made the concert a huge success. I hope they enjoyed coming and performing for us as much as we enjoyed listening to them.
Half of the profits from the evening will go the music department at the school. I’m going to suggest they invest in a voice coach! It was great that the kids were brave enough to stand up in front of a hall full of people and sing, but yet again, the quality of their performance was disappointing. Thank goodness for the choir!
Anyway, if you could let me have the bank details I’ll arrange payment. It probably won’t be until next week now as I’m off to Germany for a few days tomorrow, visiting some Christmas markets to really help get into the Christmas spirit!
I hope you have a lovely Christmas Eric and I look forward to working with you again in the New Year.
Best wishes
Carol
So a big thank you for all who attended last night and it looks like we might have further engagements after speaking to Andy, the Head of Music at the school, and Carol.  Once they have a total, I will let you know.
Don’t forget we are meeting next week for a “Social Gathering” and  a “Bring and Share” food, and we will provide tea and coffee.
Eunice is still looking for singers for the Local Vocals on Thursday and Friday next week, so if you are available, please let Eunice know.
In the new year, I will be sending out the programme for what we will be doing for the summer concerts.
If I don’t see you next week, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Bye for now.
Eric.
Sent from my iPad