Welcome to Choralsongs

Bio

My work centers on bringing people back to the joy that comes from singing and making music together. I believe that in our North American culture we often tend to forget the joyful awareness of community that arises when we allow ourselves to work together in this way.

I love to get people singing together in harmony. In high school I formed music groups and I would pore over vocal records by groups such as Peter, Paul, and Mary and many others to learn how the harmonies went together. At parties I would be (and still am) the guy with the guitar leading the sing-along. I also play a number of other instruments, including piano, Irish harp, and Renaissance lute, and my work there has led me into many recording studios, and to the U.S, Japan, and Ireland.

I received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Victoria in Victoria BC Canada. At university I sang with more formal choirs and learned much of the wonderful “standard” choral repertoire. I then followed music into an administrative role, becoming Director for 15 years of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, which I left in 1999 in order to pursue a career as an independent musician.

I have worked with many choirs and vocal groups, and am the co-director (with Shivon Robinsong) of the Gettin’ Higher Choir, and director of Soundings Vocal Ensemble. My arrangements form the core of the repertoire for both these groups and are becoming popular with other community choirs.

With Shivon I also direct the Community Choir Leadership Training program, which seeks to instruct and inspire those who wish to lead non-auditioned community choirs. This program has resulted in the formation of the UBUNTU Choirs Network, an association of non-auditioned community choirs throughout North America who are discovering or re-discovering the joys of singing in harmony.

I am also available as a workshop leader and clinician, and I have led many enthusiastic sessions in universities, community centers, churches, and even in thatched cottages in Ireland, for people who might have previously thought that they “could not sing”.

In sub-Saharan Africa it is said that “If you can walk you can dance, and if you can talk you can sing”. This belief continues to inform and inspire my work, to my great delight and on-going satifaction.