- This event has passed.
The Harbour of Song with Ali Burns and Candy Verney
March 5 2021 - March 19 2021
€10 – €25
A series of 3 workshops with Ali Burns and Candy Verney
Take refuge in harmony, in rhythm and rhyme; in singing inspiring new songs for our times
In this series of 3 workshops Ali Burns and Candy Verney will each share some of their compositions and arrangements from recent years where poetic lyrics, rhythm and soaring transcendent harmonies combine in magical alchemy to create songs that are satisfying and special to sing.
Since lockdown Ali Burns has been working with trad and jazz pianists to create some beautiful backing tracks and for the first time on zoom she’ll be sharing these tracks as we sing some of her favourite workshop songs. Candy Verney will be bringing some of the songs that have come out of her friendship with Lindsey Williams, a rich collaboration which has produced work that choirs find a joy to sing. As a singer at a recent workshop expressed: ‘Candy and Lindsey, wow what a combination!’
“Building a singing community is one of the most satisfying and humbling parts of my life – a constant and powerful reminder that we need each other’s friendship and support to survive. I think of singing workshops as a harbour in a changing and troubled world and I love writing songs that reflect those concerns and move and ‘mend’ us in some way.” Ali Burns
“There’s something about singing with a community – even in lockdown – that creates a vessel to experience the extraordinary. It can still be a deeply spiritual place for us to grow together and it’s a wonderful privilege to be able to create and facilitate that magical space” Candy Verney
Meet your hosts
Ali Burns
Ali Burns has been writing for community choirs since the early 1990s. She is particularly interested in songs that have relevant social context and those that mark special events and rites of passage in our lives. Many of her songs have found their way into the repertoire – and hearts – of singers across the UK, and increasingly the USA and Australia. Her work is published by Faber, Sing Up! and Oxford University Press. aliburns.co.uk
Candy Verney
Candy’s passion is to inspire and create, through singing, a sense of harmony which gives an experience beyond the ordinary. She has been building singing communities in different ways all her working life. She created and developed 6 community choirs in and around Bath for 20 years. She runs Community Choir Leader Trainings, seeding singing groups throughout UK and Germany. She initiated and directed The Trowbridge Song project, celebrating diversity through sharing traditional music, in a rural town in Wiltshire. She is now director of The Song House, a retreat centre in Co. Donegal, NW Ireland, where she also runs singing holidays and trainings. Recently she has collaborated with Lindsey Williams and together they have written a series of songs for choirs that are a joy to sing, whose lyrics inspire and comment on modern life: Songs for Life candyverney.co.uk
These workshops run 7-9pm each evening.
Workshop 1 (5/3/21):
€10.00Add to cart
Workshop 2 (12/3/21):
€10.00Add to cart
Workshop 3 (19/3/21):
€10.00Add to cart
To subscribe to the whole course:
€25.00Add to cart