Location
Stroud and all over
Stroud and all over
Workshops, concerts, song-theatre performances, songwriter, Sing For Water, songs Illa Lucem, Heart
I started running my first choir in 1981 in Stroud; then a choir for women in Cardiff in 1982-3, the next was a choir at the National Theatre for actors and NT staff members. I went to Georgia on 4 field trips in the 90s, thanks to friendships with several Georgian ethnomusicologists. I’ve travelled with solo and group song theatre performances in the UK, Latin America, Europe and OZ and my songwriting has been greatly influenced and inspired by hearing other polyphonic singing traditions as well as by classical music, folk and choral music which inspired my growing up.
I create simple chants, canons, rounds and bigger songs that take longer to learn but which are a lot of fun to achieve. I have a passion for setting poetry, and often work with poets who are not of the mainstream, sometimes in translation from Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, French, Russian, German, Farsi, Chinese, Japanese and Kurdish. Many of these poets have or have had very powerful life stories to tell.
For my group’s song theatre work I interview people worldwide. For one show I interviewed war correspondents, and then I weave their stories and experiences into a song cycle which is then staged. The most recent show TRUTH included a song about the transgender experience, another about stealing polos, another about an attack on a person due to their sexual orientation, another with words by Gandhi and some on the power of speaking out.
Songs are at the heart of my life. I love to run singing groups and weekend workshops and to give people a joyful and powerful experience of being together inside the sounds and words themselves. I would love to come and work in any area. Do get in touch if you’d like a workshop or a concert for your community. For concerts there is no financial risk to you and you don’t even have to organise it! – I can explain how it can work.
