was founded by Margot Lampkin in February 2000, after repeated requests by students in her Beginner Choral Singing group at Adult Education in Hobart.

There were very few singing opportunities at that time in the Kingston area, so Margot advertised the new singing group and began with a great group of men and women, incl. the Adult Ed students.

Discussions about a suitable name resulted in ‘The Kingston Singers’ but new groups in the area began calling themselves ‘The Kingston ........’ and it became quite confusing, so in 2008 the name was changed to ‘The Southern Voices’.

As ‘The Kingston Singers’ the choir recorded a CD Flying Free in 2005, and were (and still are) delighted with the results. Items include Panis Angelicus, ‘Cross the Wide Missouri, Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, Rhythm of Life from Sweet Charity,  and Mozart’s Alleluia. Copies are still available at $15 ea.

In February 2010, the choir celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a dinner at the Brookfield Vineyard in Margate. Co-owner Helen Lindsay is in the choir.

Currently, the choir has 35 singers and performs a similar repertoire to the other choirs in Choral Productions Tasmania Inc - songs from music theatre, gospel, folk, ‘million sellers of the 20th century’, some classical and of course lots of Christmas songs and ‘songs of inspiration’ during December.

The Southern Voices is the ‘resident’ choir for the Kingborough Council’s Australia Day Citizenship Ceremonies in January every year, and the RSL’s Anzac Day commemorative services in April, and also performs every February at the Middleton Country Fair, and in December at the Middleton Carols by Candlelight.

New performances

Since the super success of our second Anzac Concert (in Hobart on April 25, and in Launceston on April 30 - where all three choirs in Choral Productions Tasmania Inc joined for a 100-voice ensemble) we have been in rehearsals for our next concert scheduled for November 13 in the Kettering Community Hall, and November 27 in the Kingborough Senior Citizens Club in Redwood Rd. All concerts begin at 2pm. Our Men in Black male choir will join us as guest group.

We are calling this concert ‘Anything Goes’ and we have researched back through the wonderful songs written at the beginning of the ‘big band’ era, between 1900 and 1940, and will present Irving Berlin’s ‘I Love a Piano’, and his ‘Blue Skies’, the ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B’ from 1940, Duke Ellington’s ‘Don’t Get Around Much Anymore’ plus lots of similar bouncy tunes. Do come and join us. Tickets will be available at the door in Kettering, or from choir members, or phone me on 6244 5344, and for the Kingston performance, tickets will be available from November 1 at Bertoz Jewellers in Channel Court, at $15, $12 conc. and $5 chn.

New singers are always welcome. You just need to be able to sing in tune, and most people can!  We will teach you the rest. To give you the confidence to join,

Margot will tutor another of her regular 10-week ‘Beginner Choral Singing’ classes in New Town from February - April. These beginner classes are designed to introduce newcomers to the joys of singing in a group. More information can be obtained from Margot by phoning 6244 5344 or emailing  contact@choralproductions.com.