A Wild Weekend in Cumbria

A joyous non-residential weekend of wild singing in the Borrowdale valley, with Dave Camlin, Helen Chadwick and Roxane Smith.

With the Borrowdale Institute in the heart of the valley for our base, we will have a full Saturday of singing workshops led by Dave, Helen and Roxane, followed by some low-level wild singing around the valley (or in / near the institute if wet!) on the Sunday.

The weekend is non-residential in the sense of sorting yourself out with somewhere to stay. Borrowdale has lots of lovely campsites, two youth hostels, plenty of BnBs and some majestic hotels - choose your own level of comfort! Hot drinks and snacks will be provided, but make your own arrangements for meals, or bring food to share with others, Jacob’s Join style.

Dave Camlin is a singer / composer / educator / researcher who leads community choirs in west Cumbria including Sing Owt!, Wild Chorus and the Sing for Fun Recovery Choir. He leads lots of outdoor singing events and projects, including the award-winning Fellowship of Hill and Wind and Sunshine project (2018), Communitas (2021) and Earthsong (2022). He's a native west Cumbrian who loves introducing people to songs from the local area and which celebrate our relationship to the natural world.

Helen Chadwick has run community choirs and singing workshops all her adult life. "I love the Lake District, so to combine these passions with two friends and colleagues is a joy. I’m a songwriter who creates song-theatre shows. I’ve toured internationally and composed shows for the Royal Opera House (Dave was in one!) and created a site-specific choral work for Salisbury Cathedral. I started the London Georgian choir and co-founded Sing for Water (thank you Roxane for now being its Queen!). I also love recording albums."

Roxane Smith runs community choirs on the Welsh borders (Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Welshpool). She has a fun and upbeat teaching style and everything will be learnt by ear, so no need to read music. She is co-musical director of Sing for Water London (which raises money for Water Aid through singing), and Chair of the Natural Voice Network. She is passionate about singing, and believes that singing in harmony creates friendship, community and can make the world a better place.

More info at www.davecamlin.com/wild-sing See less

Photos From The 'Christmas' Meal

A big thank you to Angela Scammell who took the following photos from our enjoyable evening when twenty eight of the Choir had a meal at the Amble Inn.

This Is Home

This Is Home..... the title of a song by Sophia Efthimiou that our choir, along with many others, have been singing for a couple of years now. Here are members of Harbour Lights, Amble's Community Choir, at our 'new' (since 2021) home, Bede Street Club, rehearsing for our appearances at Warkworth Variety Show last Friday and Saturday evenings. They sang this song, and Flora Smith's song 'Harbour Lights' which is all about living here, and the journey the river makes from the hills to the harbour. I was proud and thankful and it got me thinking.

North Northumberland is my home, and Autumn shows it at it's finest, with the beauty of the cold dark skies, green and gold and red of the fields and woods, my beloved shoreline always there and always restlessly changing - my inspiration and my comfort. My kids always say - another song about the sea/moon/winter/water? What can I say... I haven't done with those themes yet, by a long chalk! We live in an incredibly beautiful place. I never forget it.

And at work.....I am so lucky. I know so many wonderful singers and people who want to learn and to progress with their singing - as do I! I feel at home when I am teaching and leading and, I hope, listening as well as talking and singing. Over the years here I have started many projects and have been fortunate in that I have been asked to take part in wonderful events too. This time of year always feels like a time to plan, to create, to anticipate. I have collaborations in mind, masterclasses to conjure up, fabulous people to run workshops with (Stretch and Sing, Soup and Sing, Jilly Jarman's Jazz Improv Choir) and ideas fizzing away all the time.

I have learned to leave a space for opportunity, and indeed, exciting requests do come through; like the email which led to our recent experience with Matthew Tuckey's 'The Rime' project, which saw our choir singing and recording with an orchestra, a truly unforgettable day for us.

Harbour Lights Community Choir is home. Bede Street is a wonderful home for Harbour Lights. My computer is home, the place where I connect with students who have become friends. Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cumbria and Scotland are all home.

Singing is home.

Sarah C Gray