Upcoming News:
Christmas Concert 2023 Announced!
Join us for some yuletide cheer as Kathie presents her new adult choir, Cloud 9 Chorus, along with Skylarks and Nightingales children’s choirs at our favourite event of the year: the annual Christmas concert! A celebration of all things festive, the concert will feature Christmas songs old and new, traditional carols, readings, and – of course – a chance to join in and sing along! This year’s combined Christmas concert promises to bring great cheer while supporting some very worthy causes.
Our chosen charities this year are The International Committee of the Red Cross and YFW Blood Bikes.
Established in 1863, the International Committee of the Red Cross operates worldwide, helping people affected by conflict and armed violence and promoting the laws that protect victims of war. An independent and neutral organisation, its mandate stems essentially from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. They are based in Geneva, Switzerland, and employ over 21,000 people in more than 100 countries. The ICRC is funded mainly by voluntary donations from governments and from National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Freewheelers Emergency Voluntary Service (Yeovil), known as “YFW Blood Bikes” and “Yeovil Freewheelers”, is a group of emergency volunteer bikers operating out of Yeovil, Wincanton, and Dorchester Hospitals. The demand for their services is still growing after 40 years supporting the NHS. They are the oldest surviving blood bike group in the country, the two older groups having been forced to close through lack of funds some time ago. Last year they made over 1,800 out-of-hours deliveries, carrying blood, platelets, blood and tissue samples, medication, breast milk, documents, CT scans, and equipment to hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes as well as private addresses across much of Somerset and all of Dorset, saving the NHS well over £200,000 while easing patients’ suffering and helping to save lives.
Music – A Way of Life!
Dorset-based musician and singer Kathie Prince has worked extensively throughout the UK, Ireland and internationally, working actively in schools and colleges. Her many years of experience includes facilitating and managing youth and community projects. Kathie is passionate about working in the area of creative health care as a voice specialist. She loves to perform and devise in mainstream and experimental music theatre, and enjoys collaborating with dancers, musicians, visual artists and film makers. Click here to find out more about Kathie’s projects.
“My classical training was invaluable but on my travels I’ve discovered many other inspirational worlds of music-making. From Indian ragas and South Indian folk music to African chants and Gospel songs. From traditional Irish tunes to Breton dance music. From site-specific improvisation in Assisi to sound installations on London’s South Bank. From island communities in Orkney to cross-border communities in Northern and Southern Ireland. It’s been an amazing journey!”
Singing… a real discovery!
Kathie rediscovered her passion for singing in her twenties after completing her classical training. She had been teaching music and drama in a London secondary school but left the school environment to find work as a teacher/performer:
“I joined a team of actors at the Commonwealth Institute where we devised a Theatre In Education project. As part of the devising and rehearsal process, singer Frankie Armstrong facilitated a voice workshop. This was to be the start of my singing journey. Frankie’s inspirational and liberating approach was a revelation to someone who had been subjected to a stuffy school choir and a limited repertoire – not to mention the criticism that came with it!! There was no turning back – no expensive equipment, no need to read music and an endless supply of songs from all over the world. I began facilitating singing workshops for people of all ages and abilities and have never looked back”.
Kathie runs singing workshops and singing lessons in schools and communities, with theatre groups and in corporate settings.
Singing in a choir could change your life
By Ruth Lanigan, VIVA! choir member:
“To sing with Kathie Prince is a wonderful experience. Her choirs are fun, inclusive, accessible and good for the soul. In 2006 she founded VIVA! at Dorchester Arts Centre and has since gone on to create Heart and Soul (the Poundbury Community Choir) and the excellent Skylark’s children’s choir. Ages range in her adult choirs from 22 to 90. They sing an exciting and eclectic range of music…. gospel, blues, pop, folk, classical and roots. The choirs that she coaxes, teases, and cajoles with such enthusiasm find themselves winning competitions, raising thousands of pounds for charity, and even changing lives!”
This from a Heart & Soul member:
“Over the years I have sung with other choirs (mainly choral) but none can match up to singing with Kathie. I am not keen on going out to evening meetings but Heart & Soul has turned out to be an exception and something I look forward to each week. Kathie’s great enthusiasm makes every session such fun and you feel that you must do your best for her. You go home with a sense of well-being”.
This from Viva members:
“Having experienced bereavements very close together, singing, for me, has turned out to be my therapy. I’ve made new friendships, and found I could laugh again and be part of a very unique group of people”.
”Last summer I was in Southampton hospital having open heart surgery. Things didn’t go well, I had pneumonia and was in a coma for five weeks. When eventually I recovered I was told by the specialist that I had not been expected to survive. He told me that the strength of my breathing had seen me through. When I told him that I was an enthusiastic choir member he said that singing had most definitely helped to save my life“.
”A shy person you would have called me; not able to communicate easily. I’d been told at school by the music teacher that I couldn’t sing a note. I finally was able to recognise that I needed some confidence boosting, even at my age! Meeting Kathie at her first VIVA! session in 2006 totally changed my outlook! To have 40 people singing in four-part harmony within 20 minutes made the hairs on my arms stand up at the sound we made. I sang all week; in the car, in the bath, in the garden – at the top of my voice!! Through regular practice and with new breathing techniques, a proper voice emerged. I relaxed, enjoyed, and found myself looking forward to the next practices. Kathie has the wonderful ability to organise all of us in such a fun way that we (up to 60 of us), bond together, bring out the best in each other, and know we now are a force so strong. Singing has made me discover that I can express myself, at last.
Summer singing workshop at the Brownsword Hall in Poundbury
Singing Communities
Encouraging singing communities to produce original songs based on their own experiences has been an important part of Kathies’s work:
“I’ve devised performances with communities in the Orkney Islands, on Catholic and Protestant estates in Belfast, with Welsh speakers in rural North Wales, and with young people in the heart of Liverpool. With school children in remote Gaeltacht villages in the West of Ireland, with opera companies in Dublin and Northern Ireland, with a team of international artist in Kerala, South India, and with pre-school children and their parents on Portland, Dorset“. Singing is and always has been, a powerful form of self-expression. It brings people together to share in an experience which makes them feel good and reinforces their sense of community.
Singing is good for you! Put aside the inner critic and GET SINGING!”
Kathie now directs three choirs in the Dorchester area, for adults and children, designed to be inclusive and fun whilst producing a great sound!
» Nightingales Children’s Choir
Viva performing in 2017 at the Race for Life in Kingston Maurward
Click here to hear us in action, or on the CHOIRS GALLERY tab for more photos! For more details about any of Kathie’s choirs, please contact Kathie on 07826 385301 or email singing@kathieprincemusic.co.
We’d love you to join us!