Location

East Kent, Ashford, Sheerness, Aylesham

Specialisms

Open access choirs for people living with any chronic physical/mental health needs. Especially lung.

Additional information

HI, I am an intuitive musician with a lifetime of experience playing the piano and singing alone and with various groups and genres but folk has always been my go-to style, mainly for it’s accessibility and inclusivity.  Professionally, I trained and qualified as a Registered Nurse , which eventually led me to Care Management (social work) but I became a self-employed musician/choir leader from 2009.  I did a very basic training to lead weekly choir sessions for various research projects evaluating the benefits of regular group singing and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and singing and mental health and wellbeing.  These research projects were led by Dr Ian Morrison and Professor Stephen Clift of the then Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts in Health, Canterbury Christ Church University.  When the research project choirs ended, I sustained several independently for several years.  My 2 main choirs are both rooted in the research and I continue to follow the model used fairly closely.

I am dogged with health issues and with my medical background, I remain keenly interested in how living with any long-term conditions affects people’s daily activities and lives including their families, carers, and friends.  Singing regularly has absolutely helped me to maintain my ability to not only function but also to rehabilitate fairly quickly after every health set back.  Singing isn’t a cure for anything as far as we know but, by gummy, it really can help.

My choirs have members going back 10 years plus and despite closing my choirs every winter for about 3 months, everyone returns when I do.  They often remind me (each week) of the various benefits that they feel they get from singing with the choir.  This spurs me on even when I am struggling with my own health.

My ethos for my choirs absolutely matches the NVN philosophy of working principles and the code of practice.   Singing is all about inclusion and the elitism of mainstream music goes against my grain!