Musicians pay tribute to ‘sweet soul’ Liz
MUSICIANS played from the heart at a memorial concert for flautist Elizabeth “Liz” Hextall.
Held in All Saints’ Church, Sapcote, her childhood home, the moving musical tribute was held almost a year after the 44-year-old teacher and performer from Sharnford died in Nuneaton’s George Eliot Hospital following a short illness.
Fellow musicians and her own music students were among those who performed at the event, which raised £600 for the church’s organ restoration fund.
Host for the evening was Miss Hextall’s former teacher from Mount Grace High School in Hinckley, David Sampson, who read his own composition, a sonnet called Sweet Soul Music, in memory of “a sweet soul”.
The Heart of England Recorder Orchestra (Hero) with which Miss Hextall performed for more than 20 years played some of her favourite pieces, including the contemporary jazz composition Sound Crime by Guus Haverkate, conducted by Michelle Holloway.
Former student Kristyna Myles, who has sung with Chris de Burgh and appeared on TV’s Songs of Praise, took to the piano to sing her self-composed Autumn.
Student Ben Fojut played a clarinet solo and Kirsty Smith, former student turned fellow music teacher, channelled her mentor with a hypnotic flute piece.
Nine-year-old Raimi Smith, who was “discovered” by Miss Hextall at a youth open mic event, performed Ed Sheeran’s Castle on the Hill and onetime Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalists Gay and Alan Cooper reproduced the James Bond theme tune to Skyfall on gleaming handbells.
A poem written and read out by young friend Evie Chappell had the audience reaching for tissues.
Topping the bill was screened footage of Miss Hextall on stage with folk rock group Black Rat at the Moira Festival in 2013, where she performed and played her own composition Lament.
The evening ended with Hero and Kristyna Myles leading the audience in a rendition of Abba’s Thank You for the Music, a song that was played at Miss Hextall’s funeral where more than £1,000 in donations also benefitted the organ fund.
The church needs around £25,000 to restore its organ and has so far raised more than £3,000 for the cause.