Tutor: Sue Harris
As a Natural Voice practitioner and community choir leader with over 25 years’ experience, Sue sources music from around the globe, arranges traditional songs and writes music inspired by the wonders of nature. She has 3 choirs around the Welsh Borders and a West Gallery choir in Shropshire.
Having always had an interest in the theatre, Sue has written music for a number of radio plays featured on Radio 4. Following on from this work she went on to teach singing on Performing Arts courses in Hereford and Newtown, Powys, and later at the National Blind College in Hereford. Using her various skills led her to become involved with Pentabus theatre company writing music for several youth productions.
She has worked on a number of Early Years music projects in Herefordshire and Powys and trained as a Forest school leader which led to writing songs to fit all sorts of woodland activities and an album, as a teaching resource, ‘Music in the Air ‘.
Having been involved in traditional folk music for a long time, playing Hammered Dulcimer and dancing as well as singing, has led Sue to be invited to run courses at Halsway Manor, the national folk centre for the arts, in Somerset. Here she brings alive folk music traditions in her ‘Box of Delights’ courses.
For many years she has collaborated with Polly Bolton to run an annual singing camp in South Shropshire and several singing retreats.
Her love of traditional music inspired her to research songs that used to be sung around the Welsh Borders. This culminated in a project bringing together 3 of her choirs performing English and Welsh songs with new arrangements by Sue, and a number of songs which she wrote specially to reflect the landscape of the Welsh Marches. The recording of them is on ‘New Songs for Old’.
Singing is just one of the best things that anyone can do, uplifting and joyful, simply a delight, and Sue’s happy and informal atmosphere helps a great deal too!