Vilma Weaver, Musical Director and Conductor of Coventry’s Ashira Singers, was presented with the Lady Hilary Groves Prize from Making...
Making Music is delighted to announce Lila Hallett as the recipient of its Lady Hilary Groves Prize for 2016. Awarded to one individual in the UK each year, the Lady Hilary Groves Award is presented to a member nominated by their group for their outstanding contribution to music in the community.
Lila has always devoted her life to participating in and involving others in the field of music, particularly young people. Now in her 80s, Lila has been a piano teacher and accompanist since she was 17 as well as a music teacher in four Chester schools for 20 years and a lifelong accompanist to musicians for concerts and examinations, and pianist for ballet classes. For 32 years she has worked as programme secretary for Chester Music Society.
Over the years, she has organised numerous musical events for fund raising activities for charities such as The British Heart Foundation, Friends of the Phil and the Breast Care Unit at the hospital in Chester.
Lila was instrumental in proposing the recent Young Musician of Chester competition and, as accompanist and supporter, in enabling the Chester Music Society Youth Choir to become established in the late 1980s.
Numerous individuals and organisations in Chester owe much to Lila’s support, and the Lady Hilary Groves Prize recognises her enormous contribution to Chester’s amateur music scene over many decades.
John Gough, senior tutor in piano at Royal Northern College of Music said:
In my view music in Chester and its environs would have been much poorer without Lila’s considerable and unstinting input and foresight.
