Sussex Song Makers promise fun this Christmas

Founder Elizabeth Muir-Lewis brings the all-female group to St Mary's Church in Willingdon on December 10 at 6.30pm: “As Christmas grows ever nearer, we all need something to raise our spirits,” Elizabeth said. “St Mary's church in Willingdon, with its calming and lovely environment, will transport you to that make-believe world of Christmas cheer. Just imagine. Ten wonderful singers, one superb pianist, and myself, the one who drives her singers to sing gloriously, to bring in the festive season with a programme full of Christmas cheer mixed with entertaining items guaranteed to send you home with a smile.”

Tickets up front £5. £6 at the door. Tickets in advance from Jess on 01323 501763.

“We must have been making concerts now for about five years. When I stopped conducting Eastbourne Choral I missed making music that way and for some reason I decided to make up a group that was all ladies. We've got ten ladies all of whom have superb voices and the bulk of them are soloists in their own right. Next year we have got five concerts and we had about the same number this year. We've got our third visit to London next year and we've got various concerts coming up in Eastbourne.”

The joy of singing as an all-ladies group is that there is so much repertoire available especially as so many works are being adapted these days for all-female choirs – to the extent, Elizabeth says, that you wouldn't even notice that the men are not there. And it is great to be back out performing after all the frustrations of the lockdowns: “The lockdowns were not easy. The ladies have all got families and some are grandmothers and we just weren't able to make music at all for the whole time. I didn't want to get into Zoom so I just continued my writing career in the meantime.”

But she never doubted that the group would resume: “A lot of them have become friends of mine. They were frustrated because they weren't able to do the thing they loved and because we had so many lovely concerts coming up. We just had to cancel them all. But we weren't alone. Everyone suffered but now it is good that things are pretty much back to normal. This will be a Christmas concert and the girls will be doing some lovely Christmas pieces for me. We've got you some duets and solos and trios and we've got some amusing things and some lovely things. We've got some Purcell and some Elgar.” The big challenge is to find an audience: “That's one of those difficult things since lockdown. I think the government did a superb job of scaring everyone when it all happened and to read now that the lockdowns were not necessary... But I do think there is a bit of reticence for people coming out to concerts still but maybe also it is habit. Maybe the habits have stopped. I know that some groups have an older age and are therefore a bit more cautious.”