Huw Thomas is new musical director of Havant-based Solent Male Voice Choir

He will take up the reins in September “assuming we can all go back then,” he says.

Huw will take over from Geoff Porter who is moving on, joining the Hampshire Police Male Voice Choir. Huw had been serving as his deputy at SMVC.

“I retired from Bishop Luffa in 2018 after 34 years of teaching, and it was the right time to retire,” says Huw. “And it was quite early in my retirement that a friend of a friend said that SMVC were looking for an accompanist and was I interested.

“I had already seen some members of the choir appear on Portsmouth TV, one of the free channels, and what got me interested was that they were getting ready to sing at the Albert Hall and that they were to going to be singing eight pieces in Welsh which for an English choir is very unusual. And I remembered that. In the back of my mind, I knew that they existed. When someone asked if I would be interested in going along, I was certainly interested. Also I think one of the things you can lose when you are teaching is the craft of being a musician yourself. You are giving your talents to all the children all the time. There is very little time to do anything musically for yourself.

“Being a Welshman one of the things I had already been thinking about was setting up a Chichester male voice choir, one of the things on my mind for retirement. I had a lot of connections with a number of senior men, but then this came along out of the blue.

“It was the winter season 2018 and I went along just to sit in the choir and sing with them and to sing all the parts, really just to see what the choir was all about and how they functioned. It was quite a strange thing being a West Sussex man to be making music in Hampshire! But I took on the role of accompanist and assistant musical director.”

Now Huw is delighted to step up. It’s a choir he enjoys working with.

“They enjoy singing. And that is important. They formed from postmen in Southampton some time ago. Whilst they were sorting letters, they would sing together. That great tradition happened and they eventually formed a choir.

“And they are a great bunch of people. There is a great welcome there and a great warmth. They are a lovely bunch of people, they really are. It is very difficult for men of a certain age to meet together if they are not interested in golf and sports. It can be very difficult for men to share a hobby together, but they do with the choir, and it is a great community. They really do support each other.”

Obviously things are rather different right now: “But we have got a very strong membership, and we meet on Zoom, and there is a Facebook page. Rehearsing is tricky because there is a time lag in the technology, but we are keeping in touch.”

It’s a question of waiting for a time when we can all be back together again: “There is already an established list of concerts in the year. Initially I think it will be important just to re-establish ourselves back on the scene.”

Huw will also have his own musical projects: “I am a composer and an arranger of my own music.

“I have got a few ideas, some traditional pieces and some pieces of my own ilk and also looking at some new repertoire.”