The Matt Evan Smith Memorial Fund has been established in the memory of a talented, loyal and much-loved member of the Vox Holloway community who passed away in 2022. The Fund supports the employment of professional soloists and musicians to work alongside the choir in rehearsals and concerts. We are grateful to Matt’s family in establishing the fund and to those who have added their contributions.
I’m writing to express my deep appreciation and thanks to you and the other Directors of Vox Holloway for bestowing on me the wonderful accolade of being the first recipient of a Matt Evan Smith sponsorship award.
As if the many opportunities you’ve given me to be at the heart of so much glorious music making over recent years were not enough, being recognised by the Choir with this award is simply the proudest of achievements.
I had the pleasure of singing with – and being corralled by – Matt at a few concerts and recordings, so it’s no surprise to me that he was held in such high regard by everyone at Vox Holloway. To be connected to his memory in this way is truly a singular honour. Thank you so much.
With my very best wishes
Maurice Wren
“When I came in to work on The Sun Does Shine it was Matt who really looked after me, telling me how everything worked at Vox, and when I sang along with the basses I would always make sure he was close so I could hear the bass part! So it’s great that part of this project is about the memory of Matt. It’s so great to work with such a fab group of people!”
Dan Copeland Soloist The Songs of Randy Newman February 2025
About Matt
Matt was born in Harlow and he received tuition with the Essex Music Service. As principal bassoonist with the county’s Youth Orchestra, he toured the USA, USSR and Europe. He studied bassoon with Paul Carroll, Vernon Elliot and Nic Hunka and voice with Ian Ray, Norman Tattersall and Patrick McCarthy. When he graduated from Colchester Institute in 1985, he was already an established freelance musician.
In subsequent years, he worked in industry, in Adult Education and as a skilled craftsman. He returned to singing in 2006 and rapidly gained a reputation for his musicianship, lyricism and rare basso profondo range. He sang classical, jazz, gospel and world music with Marin Alsop, Jurowski, Paco Pena, Mark Deller, Harvey Brough, Scott Stroman, Ian Shaw and Pete Churchill, including several premieres, solos and recordings and was regularly selected for prestigious ‘Voicelab’ ensembles at the Southbank. He often performed at major venues with the chamber choir, Collegium Musicum of London, and as a guest singer with other ensembles in London, France, Germany and Malta.
Matt was also an occasional composer. But his main role with Vox Holloway was as coach and lead singer with the bass section. He did this for more than 10 years and often performed solo parts in our concerts. In these roles he encouraged and inspired us all. But he also proved to be indispensable in sorting the logistics for every concert, negotiating and arranging the seating of singers (no easy task as any choir member will tell you!), often erecting the stage on which we sang and liaising with the technical teams required for any concert. He bent over backwards to accommodate individual needs; he never lost his cool; he kept us focused and orderly and marshalled us with a calm air of authority that was always reassuring. We loved him and looked up to him – and not simply because of his 6’6” height! He is sorely missed.
Tricia
Chair Vox Holloway
From Harvey Brough
When I think of Matt Evan Smith, I think of a proper man. Not just because of his imposing presence and physical strength, which allowed him to work as a builder for much of his life. But the real Matt who, although modest in manner, was a highly accomplished person with so many talents, all shared generously.
He was a deeply musical person, both by nature and through study. Blessed by a rich, strong and deep bass voice, he was able to sing lieder or opera, but was perhaps most at home singing in groups – small solo voice consorts or bigger choirs. He had a thorough understanding of harmony – at his last rehearsal with Vox, he informed the sopranos solemnly that the note they were having trouble locating was a flattened thirteenth over a minor seventh. It was classic Matt, firstly it made them laugh, then think. And having thought, they decided just to get the note right to avoid any more complicated explanations he might come up with. He had a huge knowledge of repertoire – choral and vocal music through his own music making and that of his family, but also orchestral through his work as a professional bassoonist early in his career.
He knew hundreds of singers and musicians, I often asked his advice when I was struggling to fix the players for a concert and he introduced me to people from many different musical backgrounds – early musicians, pianists, organists. He delighted in observing talented musicians plying their trade and was always eager to help offer them work in
our concerts.
Matt was a proper man, perhaps a proper gentleman is more accurate – always courteous and measured in the way he dealt with the tricky seating demands of a large group of singers. He undertook the stage management of our Vox concerts – something we almost took for granted. Now he’s no longer with us, we have had to assemble a team of 4 or 5 people to do the tasks that he did single handedly.
I’ve talked to many people in our Vox Holloway community and beyond and have been struck by the many different things that they remember about Matt – about how he touched so many individually with (sometimes) small but significant actions, helping them with problems, or encouraging them with a well chosen quip, always dependable, always there.
I like to think that in the 10 years that I knew him, I might have expanded his knowledge a little with the musical influences that I brought to Vox Holloway, but actually he often surprised me with links to music that I didn’t know. Recently he sent me an obscure video of Sinatra singing It Was A Very Good Year, a song that I knew – but he wanted to draw my attention to the magnificent arrangement by Gordon Jenkins – also the latter’s unusual conducting style, rather like shovelling piles of leaves from side to side whenever the music became more animated.
In the grief that we’ve all felt after his so sudden death, I still feel so happy that we gave him a magnificent 60th birthday party only a few weeks ago. Long in the planning, he assembled
a splendid line up of performers – many Vox regulars (David le Page and his string players) but
also friends and colleagues from many stages of his musical life.
What a magnificent tribute that was, not just from the performers but from all the many people who turned out to celebrate Matt. Some of them had no idea of his other life as a musician and singe and were simply bowled over by the quality of the music making and the breadth and depth of musical styles he had programmed.
It’s easier to deal with the sudden, terrible loss of Matt knowing that he was so happy about
that concert, he really felt appreciated by the community that he was such a part of at St Luke’s, Holloway. We do and will, miss him terribly, but we will also strive to make the best of our lives, musically and personally – as he always did and as he would wish us to.
Harvey Brough
The Matt Evan Smith Memorial Fund
Purpose:
The Matt Evan Smith Memorial Fund has been established in the memory of a talented, loyal and much-loved member of the Vox Holloway community who passed away in 2022. The Fund supports the employment of professional soloists and musicians to work alongside the choir in rehearsals and concerts.
Objective: The Fund will be used to support:
- Professional soloists or musicians contracted to perform with the Vox Holloway choir at concerts or other musical events
- Professional soloists or musicians contracted to support the Vox Holloway choir at rehearsals or other singing events
- And to fund any other related and appropriate use as determined by the Trustees.
Income: The Fund has been established by a series of donations from Matt Evan Smith’s family. It is also open to ad-hoc contributions from choir members or any other persons. There will be no specific fund-raising target. Funds will be separately accounted for but will be held in the general N7 Community Choir bank account.
Use of the Fund: The value of the fund will be reported on a termly basis to the Trustees. A decision will be made by the Trustees on the use of the fund in the budgeting for each concert or other Vox Holloway event. The Fund will generally be used on a regular basis though the Trustees, at their discretion, may elect to retain funds for a period towards a specific use which is within the objectives of the Fund.
Publicity: Where the fund is used to support professional musicians, the Programme should acknowledge this using the introduction paragraph on this page.
Established November 2024
Vox Holloway 