Choirs
I love working with multiple voices. At Balcarras school in Cheltenham, the “Times SW School of the Decade” for 2010-2020, I formed and led an extremely successful Chamber Choir which won many prizes including the National Performance Award at the Music for Youth finals at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.
Community choir
I now run a small community choir in Cheltenham which takes place at The Retreat Wine Bar in the Suffolks. Singers of all standards and levels are welcome. There is no membership fee. However, I do ask for a donation for The Samaritans and the The Royal Society of Musicians. We work on a mixture of popular music, some classical pieces and my own arrangements and pieces. My main aim is for people to enjoy singing whilst taking on board some technical tuition.
We also enjoy the InnovAcoustic aspect of my work. For example, we take phrases, or samples, and expand and layer them. It’s a lot of fun, creating a wonderful, natural surround-sound.
Choir workshops
I have held many workshops for choirs of differing ability. My most recent engagement was with the Songbirds choir in Thornbury. This is an un-auditioned choir of 18 enthusiastic ladies, many of whom do not read music. The brief was, firstly, to help the two choir directors develop their skills in leading the choir and, secondly, to teach the choir some voice techniques and how to respond to direction. They asked me to arrange a piece of music that would incorporate the fundamentals of choir singing. In response, I wrote a three-part arrangement of Moon River. During the workshop I used this to develop skills of listening and responding for the singers and skills in conducting for the directors.