Sussex Song Makers offer home concert in Eastbourne

They will be conducted by their founder Elizabeth Muir-Lewis who was delighted with the Chichester experience, not least because it helped show her singers just how good they are.

“In Chichester we didn't have as many people in the audience as we might have hoped for. It was so far away for us but it was a lovely audience and I know I would say this but it was a really lovely concert, and the young ensemble we were using, who we will also be using in Eastbourne, are just such lovely young players. I was very, very pleased with it. It tested everyone to the limit. The works that we did are difficult works but the 12 female voices sounded like 50! It was lovely and I said to people in the interval that people who were old enough might be interested to know that it was in memory of my first husband (the tenor Richard Lewis, 1914-1990) and several people came up to me and said that yes they remembered him well.

“I keep his memory alive because he was a great artist and there is a big competition at the Royal Academy of music in his name. But really just making music is wonderful. Music has been my life since I was 16. I was a singer for many, many years and when the day came and I decided I wanted to do more than just sing I took up conducting which is much more fun because you're in charge of the whole thing. My choir used to say ‘she who must be obeyed’ but it is great be in charge of it all. If you are singing you just sing your bit and then you sit down but with this you have whole new genres to learn.”

Elizabeth added: “We are group of singers who are all singers in their own right. After I'd stopped conducting Eastbourne Choral which I had done for ten years, I missed conducting so I got together this group of girls and we are having a lovely time. We got together about six years ago and there are 12 of us. It's actually quite difficult to decide what we're going to do.

"The Magnificat is 25 minutes long and the Gloria is 30 minutes long so we have put in the Albinoni and the Torelli in as well. And I know that if I saw our programme, I would want to hear it!”

“For me it is all about the passion of making music at a high level. I'm not good at doing things at a lower level! I was fortunate in my career as a singer and I worked with some of the greatest singers and was part of top, top class music.

"I try to bring my choirs and my singers up to a standard that is welcome everywhere.”