St Mary’s Church is the iconic building at the top of the High Street situated in Church Close.
5 years ago the lead was stolen from the roof, not once but twice, followed by a very bad storm. Not knowing the lead had gone until the water cascaded in to the church ruining the bellows for the organ, which were made of leather and rotted. The water then caused the heater to work overtime and being old it broke and had to be replaced. Meanwhile the damp caused much of the paintwork to peel and it needs repainting at a cost of £75K. A lot of this is due to needing scaffolding etc.
A committee was set up with Sir George Young, Steve Dancy from the advertiser plus other regular church goers and my wife Frances and myself. We held several events including a small indoor fete, a
valuation day and the Andover Young Musician of the year.
It was a surprise that this event had not been run and so we decided to look at the possibility. We contacted the ‘Senior’ schools and found that five of the six were really pleased to enter three acts. The acts were to be in two classes Classical and popular music and the event was such a success that everybody asked, no insisted, that we run it again the following year.
We have three judges and this year as with last we have Julian Dawes a professional composer and pianist from London, Andy Pomfrey who is a local musician and ran several bands and Sharon Vannell a gifted jazz singer and songwriter. We also ask them to present the Hubert Dawkes Trophy to the person that shows most promise. In all cases the winners get £100 each, the runners up £50 and the Hubert Dawkes £100.
This year we have added an extra category of Choir. The prizes and sponsorship are by David Mellor, Jewellers, Marston Robing, Test valley Arts Foundation and Sue Morris is kindly coming along to photograph the acts.
Over the last years we have had Steve Randall from the Breeze, Malcolm Tucker a well- known Toastmaster, last year as with this year we are delighted to welcome Kit Malthouse again.
The church is, as I mentioned, an iconic building in Andover and really needs to be saved for our future generations so we need to fill St Mary’s church for two reasons.
Firstly the musicians have probably never played in front of a large crowd in a building that has such superb acoustics and it is something they will always remember and in most cases showcases their GCSE exams.
Secondly we have raised in excess of £1200 each time we have run the event and hope to do the same again this year.
Andover Musician of the Year is on Thursday 11th February 2016 at St Mary’s Church, Andover at 6.30pm.
Tickets are just £10 per person for the General Public. Children under 14 free
Family tickets (for families of participating schools only) can be purchased at £10 which include two parents and two children.
Tickets available from;
Shopmobility
Newbury Building Soc
Cab Andover
Travelling Cup Cake
Heavenly sweets and
David Mellor Jewellers
For more information please contact christopher.lynn@talktalk.net