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. Kathie has many years of experience as a professional musician and vocal coach working throughout the UK and abroad. Eleven years ago 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, 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 forty people singing in four part harmony within twenty 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 sixty of us), bond together, bring out the best in each other, and know we now are a force so strong that singing has made me discover that I can express myself, at last.
Since early beginnings they have raised almost £3,000 for charity by doing what they like best… singing for….
Hillfield Priory Retreat, DCH Cancer Appeal, Dorset Blind Association, West Dorset’s Women’s Refuge, Wessex Autism, Philippines Typhoon Appeal, Warmwell Church Roof, Race for Life,
Their next concert is on
Saturday 14th October 2017 United Reform Church at 7.30pm, in aid of CAB, the Citizens Advice Bureau
They would also love to perform for you http://kathieprincemusic.co.uk
