How Can I Keep From Singing?

  Arla Good is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University and the co-director and lead researcher of the SingWell Project, an international research initiative investigating the potential of group singing to support psychosocial wellbeing, communication, and health in older adults. Our conversation focuses on what science can tell us about the power of...

Nick Page is the author of SING AND SHINE ON, a guide to multi-cultural song leading. Hal Leonard publishes his SING WITH US songbook which are sing-along songs for chorus and audience. Nick has led sings and songleading workshops at educational conferences, at the Jewish Choral Festival, for the Unitarian Universalist General Assemblies, and at the People Music Network gatherings (where he would...

  Nadine Cooper and Bernie Bracha started their first Tuneless Choir in 2016. Their sole aim was to have members walk out the door feeling uplifted. There were be no auditions, no music, no parts and no tuition.   Now there are over30 active tuneless choirs around the UK, with more in the planning stage.   https://www.tunelesschoir.com/story/

Heidi Wilson’s passion is to share songs in service to community and the wild world; songs that celebrate the seasons, bring groups together, offer thanks, muster courage, and make room for deep connection.   Heidi has been leading community singing groups in central Vermont and beyond for the last 19 years, and is touring The Well Tree, an original storytelling musical, with her trio Heartwood.  ...

Frankie Armstrong (  www.frankiearmstrong.uk ) has been singing professionally since 1964. In 1975 she began her pioneering Voice Workshops  based on ethnic styles of singing - where singing is as natural as speaking. She has sung and run workshops all over Europe, N America and Australia   Frankie has made 12 solo albums and co-written three books on Voice, including Acting and Singing with Arche...

Joanne Hammil is a composer, songwriter, choral director, music educator and performer.  Her passions for singing in harmony and creating community through music infuse her songwriting and teaching.     She has directed many choruses throughout her career and has presented hundreds of workshops and concerts throughout the country.   Our conversation revolves around attitudes and approaches that ma...

Today's episode features two different guests. Lauren McElroy is a song leader in Viroqua, Wisconsin. She frequently attends and offers songs as part of Wisconsing's gathers. Bev Grant is a long time musician, activist, and for many years a leader of the Brooklyn Women's Chorus. https://bevgrant.com/ for Bev and  Motherofpurl.net for Lauren  

Rana is a unique women’s choir operating in Jaffa and comprised of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish women. The choir was founded in 2008 by Mika Danny, who serves as its musical director and conductor, and by Idan Toledano, who serves as the artistic director. Rana has performed successfully throughout Israel and the world. The choir aims to express the female voice, which is not heard enough in thei...

Catherine Roma has led community singing in a variety of locations and types, but she has a specific passion for working with incarcerated people. creating choruses and music that reflects a focus on dignity and social change. She discusses experiences and lessons from her more than 30 years of leading singing in prisons in Ohio.

Betsy Rose has been a singer and songwriter for over 50 years. Apart from her compelling and poetic writing, she has a passion for group singing, especially in political and cultural change contexts. Her songs have taken her around the world, but lately her main stage is at political street protests. more at betsyrosemusic.com    

My guests in this podcast are Denis Donelly, Cathy Baker and Dick Jackson. Denis, Cathy and Dick are codirectors of the community choir leadership training in Victoria British Columbia. The training began in 2004 and continues to this day with a yearly program of a two-week intensive in-person session and a full year of mentorship and ongoing networking opportunities through the  Ubuntu Choirs Net...

John McCutcheon has performed for audiences around the world for over 50 years. Beside his considerable musical talents, he's a committed song leader with a long history of encouraging connection and activism through group singing. We talk about his development of song leading as a skill and a passion.    John's Website

Esther Morgan-Ellis shares the joys and the structures of this old style of singing together. The exuberance of the practice is echoed in Esther's own enthusiasm for the power of this tradition.  Esther Morgan-Ellis is a historical musicologist who focuses on participatory musical traditions, especially community singing and old-time music-making. She has written extensively about the early twenti...

Sam Lee is a British folk singer, song collector, and environmental activist who founded Singing with Nightingales, an immersive springtime series that brings audiences into the woods to experience live music in duet with nightingales.  A Mercury Prize–nominated artist and passionate nature conservationist, he uses this project to connect people more deeply with the natural world, blending traditi...

Chau Yoder was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. Since 1989, she has offered workshops and classes in Mindful Living, in youth, corporate retreat, and community settings. Chau was Trained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and ordained as a Dharma Teacher in 2003. She’s dedicated to sharing practical methods of mindful living that cultivate awareness of body and mind. She’s also a retired engineer, who spent 25...

Singing that fills the living room or dining room or basement or kitchen is a tradition that's probably as old as group singing in itself. Phil, Beth, and Scott talk about their experience and tips for inviting people in to your home and to the songs themselves. Phil Hoose information.  Beth and Scott Bierko information   and a written piece by Phil and Faith Petric. These days, many people can’t...

Heather Mae is a genre‑defying artist‑activist whose music blends the storytelling intimacy of folk with the grit of alternative rock and the hooks of indie pop. She writes anthems about mental health, queer liberation, survivor empowerment, and social justice, inviting listeners into a space of radical honesty and shared vulnerability. Her double‑album project WHAT THEY HID FROM ME has helped to...

Jane Sapp is a nationally admired cultural worker, musician, educator, folklorist, and activist whose approach to social transformation is rooted in the African American musical, cultural, spiritual and human rights traditions. Through her singing, documenting local culture and stories, song-writing workshops, and other expressive work with diverse communities and youth, Jane actively engages peop...

Paul Tinkerhess is a long time community singer and songwriter from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our conversation explores the ways we risk vulnerability and move forward as singers and as a community.

Elise Witt’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the world. Born in Switzerland, raised in NC, and living in Atlanta since 1977, Elise speaks 5 languages fluently and sings in at least a dozen more. From 2009-2024, Elise served as Director of Music Programs at the Global Village Project, (GVP) a...

Kate Munger has been passionate about community singing since she was 8 years old at Girl Scout Camp and has led community singing now for over 45 years. In 2000 she founded the first of now 200 Threshold Choirs around the world. Today at 74 she is retired from running the Threshold Choir and has returned to her passions of writing songs for medicinal use and singing at the bedsides of people who...

Mike Ross is the director of the Madison Youth Choirs. In this episode we discuss how group singing for children and young adults molds outlooks and understandings even as they engage in the joyful experience of being part of a choir. https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org/  

Sandra Kerr has had had a long and distinguished career in Folk music. Trained by MacColl and Seeger in the controversial Critics Group, co- writer of the music for the much-loved cult TV series, Bagpuss, multi-instrumentalist, choir director , long time member of Sisters Unlimited, and much- respected lecturer and tutor on the Newcastle degree course in Folk and Traditional Music, Sandra has been...

Bonnie Lockhart and Nancy Schimmel have been singing at rallies and other political events for over sixty years. They discuss the challenges and joys of trying to rally people with music around a cause. Occupella is one iteration of their work, formed during the Occupy movement. More information at BonnieLockhart.com, NancySchimmel.com and the ever evolving Occupella songbook is available at occup...

Jake Johnson is a cultural historian and author whose work focuses on the intersection of music, myth, and community in American life. His books—such as “Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America” and “Lying in the Middle: Musical Theater and Belief at the Heart of America”—explore how musical theater and storytelling enable people to shape identity, belief, and belonging outside major cu...