Tagged In: Choir Leading
Meet Our ChoirCommunity Members (Ep. 1) – Kari Olsen-Porthouse
Hi ChoirCommunity, Gitika here!
Last week I got a little ping in my inbox to say someone in our Choir Community had bought one of my Christmas titles, and for some reason I had a little sneaky look to see who it was and found Kari!
I got in touch and found out that Kari Olsen-Porthouse and I did the same Performing Arts degree at the same college…. and possibly slept in the same room in the same hall of residence! I am (a little!) older and was there a few years before but was completing my Secondary Music PGCE at the same time Kari did her degree.
Piers, Craig and I have been thinking about doing some sort of special series of blogs where we introduced some of the other wonderous choir leaders who have signed up and joined the website. This felt like the ideal opportunity to let you know two things – not only is it never too early to think about Christmas Repertoire and to publish the first of our MEET OUR CHOIRCOMMUNITY MEMBERS blogs .
I am going to let Kari introduce herself and also say a big belated happy birthday to her! I am particularly excited by her Liberty Belles who rehearse in Kari’s friend’s Hair Salon
Take it away Kari!
New Arranger Welcome – Keely Hodgson
Earlier this month, we published a new collection from our latest arranger to join the team, Keely Hodgson. Keely is the last new arranger we will be adding to the website for a while now as we focus on consolidating and adding to everyone’s collections. That means this is probably the last Zoom chat for a bit as well, so we’re making the most of it!
New Arranger Welcome – Ed Aldcroft
We launched Ed’s exciting and varied initial collection of arrangements in mid-January on ChoirCommunity. Craig had a chance to catch up with Ed over Zoom (between the UK and Spain) the week after to talk about his musical influences and career.
New Arranger Welcome – Ben See
We kicked off 2022 by publishing a brand new music collection from composer, singer and choir leader Ben See. We’re now following up this launch with another in our series of Zoom interviews with Craig.
New Arranger Welcome – Tim Allen
We’re delighted to welcome the multi-talented Tim Allen to the team of arrangers this month and Craig has marked the occasion with another wide-ranging and often fascinating chat with Tim over Zoom.
New Arranger Welcome – Kate Shipway
This week, we’re delighted to welcome our newest arranger, Kate Shipway to the website. Kate is the first new arranger to come on board via our new ‘Artist Application’ process which we introduced at the end of 2020. Her submission was the one which really caught our eye so it’s great to be able to publish her first collection of songs and arrangements this week.
Zoom chat with Gitika Partington
In this week’s blog, we finally present a chat between Craig and our other founding arranger and ChoirCommunity co-director, Gitika Partington.
Gitika has been a wonderful supporter of the ChoirCommunity initiative since the very start and it’s been great to have her support (and of course here fantastic music) throughout the first three years.
New Arranger Welcome – Dom Stichbury
In the seventh of our series of video conversations with our team of arrangers, Craig chats to Dom Stichbury about the formative years of his musical career, leading choral groups of different types, including male voices and many other aspects of how music has influenced him.
The collection of Dom’s arrangements, which will continue to grow, can be found on his shop page here.
New Arranger Welcome – Anna Tabbush
In this, the sixth of our series of video conversations with our team of arrangers, Craig chats to Anna Tabbush about her very musical upbringing and her passion for making music an experience with emotional and physical impact.
All of Anna’s arrangements, to which we are expecting to add may more, can be found on her shop page here
New Arranger Welcome – Val Regan
In the third of our series of video interviews – partly inspired by the the experience of endless Zoom calls during lockdown – Craig talks to Val Regan about his musical influences and the particularly inspiring attributes of music and arranging which have guided her through her career.