Location
North London
North London
I run singing groups for all-comers, teaching songs from all over by ear and in glorious harmony!
Workshop Leader * Composer * Vocal Arranger * Singer * Musical Director * Pianist
Angela is an experienced singing leader for all ages, abilities and styles, teaching harmony songs by ear for enjoyment and well-being. She runs Voices Singing Workshops and is a composer, vocal arranger, pianist, MD, festival organiser and music therapist. She sang for ten years with vocal trio Anam Cara, together with Judith Silver & Maggie Newlands.
Since the year 2000 Angela has initiated and led Voices Singing Workshops in North London N7, with the aim of enjoying singing in a group and finding health and well-being along the way. She welcomes anyone who wants to sing, regardless of ability and through the fun of learning songs from a wide variety of traditions, enables people to discover their voices and to sing unaccompanied in harmony.
Angela conducted Yerbury Community Choir in Tufnell Park, London N7 for six years, and in 2017 was invited to conduct the Garden Museum Choir, an ad hoc choir open to all, which was formed to help celebrate the opening of the refurbished Garden Museum in Lambeth, London. She set up the Nag’s Head Choir, an all-age choir based in Holloway, London N7, which during the lockdowns sang outside each week.
With Edmund Jeffery (and formerly with Jo Foster and Katie Rose), Angela leads Sing for your Lungs at Whittington Hospital, a singing group for people with a lung diagnosis.
Angela has led singing workshops and choirs in many other venues and situations throughout the UK.
Angela started learning the piano at the age of eight at the Royal Rhodesian Academy of Music and in her teenage years in England in the 1960s taught herself the guitar and performed Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel songs in a folk duo with her sister, mainly in Eastbourne and along the South Coast. During this time she also won awards in the piano classes at the annual Eastbourne Music Festival.
While reading Music and English at Birmingham University she founded and conducted the orchestra at St John’s Church, Harborne, and played guitar in Dave Peacock‘s Christian Arts Project cabaret band.
As a student, Angela composed incidental music for Breadrock Street Theatre (which later became Riding Lights Theatre Company) working with playwright, Murray Watts.
After a short spell as a teacher, Angela became a Video Producer with SU’s Sound and Vision Unit (1979-1983) and there she composed title and incidental music for many children’s productions, and directed amongst others Paul Jones (of Manfred Mann and The Blues Band) and Roy Castle (musician and entertainer).
In the late 1980s she collaborated with writer Meryl Doney in two musicals for children – Ears and the Secret Song and A Lion for the King, which were performed in London schools and featured on Radio 5. A Lion for the King was revived for a performance in Blythburgh, Suffolk in December 2017.
In 1992-4 she composed the title and incidental music for two series of Channel 4 Schools’ Television programmes produced by Grampian Television. She also wrote and directed both series of programmes.
Angela composed extensively for liturgical use in the two North London churches where she was music director – Emmanuel Church, Holloway and St George’s Church & Centre, Tufnell Park. While at St George’s she composed for and music directed nine community musicals. Her Urban Mass is sung in churches throughout the UK.
Angela founded and produced Music for Life Festival at St George’s – a festival of musical difference, which brought together local professional and amateur musicians from all cultures, styles, ages and backgrounds for an annual weekend of magical music.
Angela is a founder member of vocal harmony trio, Anam Cara, together with singer-songwriter, Judith Silver and composer/singer/music therapist, Maggie Newlands.
They met at the Guildhall Jazz Summer School in 1997 and started singing together in Scott Stroman’s Eclectic Voices workshop under the guidance of West End Music Director, Nick Finlow, (MD of Chicago, Rent, Mamma Mia and Jersey Boys) and Pete Churchill (jazz educator, composer and choral conductor).
Maggie, Angela and Judith formed Anam Cara early in 2000 because they loved singing the wide variety of harmony songs they were learning in the Eclectic Voices workshop. They performed their own material as well as arranging and singing songs from different traditions. Tony Woods, award-winning jazz saxophonist, collaborated with them on occasions. In 2010 Maggie Newlands moved to France and subsequently to Scotland to pursue her own music so Anam Cara no longer performs live, but the songs continue to stream online, and 3-part vocal arrangements of the songs are available to purchase.
Angela has played the piano in the house band at Cecil Sharp House (English Folk Dance & Song Society) along with fiddler Ian Cutts, providing live music for English Country Dancing (2013-16). She sings with Libra Chamber Choir and St Luke’s Choir and provides piano and guitar accompaniment for singers and instrumentalists in a variety of musical genres.
Anam Cara’s first album, Live at St George’s was released in 2001.
‘The album impressively reflects the trio’s ability to touch the soul with atmospheric harmonies and dynamic solo singing’ (Keith Ames, Musician Union magazine)
Anam Cara’s second album, Seize The Moment was released in 2009.
‘I loved the selection of music, the arrangements and performances thereof. Congratulations indeed.’ (Justin Butcher, Theatre Director/Writer/MD)
‘Maggie Newlands, Angela Reith and Judith Silver used their considerable skills to record – totally live, over two days – this most enjoyable 15-track set. Kicking off with their trademark harmonising, a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready sets a high standard and is swiftly followed by the a capella thrills of the Yiddish folksong, Tumba, and the light-hearted joys of Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive, The addition of rhythmic keys on the set’s closer, Perfect Time, acts as an ideal climax. Inspirational.’ (Keith Ames, Musician’s Union magazine)
These two albums are available on CD direct from Angela or www.cdbaby.com or as digital downloads from iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon and other digital outlets.
Angela’s own showcase album Sometimes the Sun (1997) has received consistently good reviews and is still streaming online. Available on CD direct from Angela; from www.crossrhythms.co.uk or as a digital download as above.
Her album Improvisations was released in 2012. This is an album of solo piano improvisations intended to aid meditation and reflection. Available on CD direct from Angela or www.cdbaby.com or as a digital download from iTunes, Amazon and many other digital outlets.
In 2019 Angela released an album of her own choral compositions from the last 30+ years: Music To Mend The Heart, performed by the choir Almost Blue. The recording was conducted by Mark Warman, and the choir was formed by singer-songwriter Rick Leigh.
Angela is an HCPC-registered Music Therapist (Postgraduate Diploma from Guildhall School of Music and Drama/City University, 2006), and has a certificate in Counselling Skills and Attitudes from Westminster Pastoral Foundation.
Angela welcomes invitations to compose, or to run singing workshops and musical events in all kinds of contexts. Ring or email to discuss your ideas – she’s happy to help you think them through. She is also happy to work as a piano accompanist for singers and instrumentalists, offering a variety of musical styles.
‘Sing For Your Lungs’ is a choir for anyone who has a lung diagnosis, and who lives in Islington, Haringey or Camden boroughs. I lead the choir along with my colleague, Edmund Jeffery, and all the teaching is by ear, accompanied by guitar or piano. The choir is supported by the Whittington Health Charity, so at the moment it doesn’t cost anything to attend. In pre-pandemic times we gave two concerts a year in the main hospital atrium, and we are aiming to resume these performances in due course.
Please contact me if you’re interested in joining us.
Thursday afternoons, 3-4pm
Voices Singing Workshops meets weekly in term time on Wednesday evenings in St Luke’s Church, Holloway N7. We learn a wide variety of songs by ear and in harmony – including folk, world, jazz, pop, rock, blues, show songs and originals. There are no auditions, just a desire to sing! All 16+s are welcome to attend. We don’t perform but enjoy the process of learning and performing to ourselves at the end of an evening. There are always chocolate biscuits in the tea break…
Wednesday evenings in term time, 8-9.45pm including tea break
