How Can I Keep From Singing?

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 Archetypes. She is President of NVN (Natural Voice Network. She offers workshops called Adventures in Voice and If you Can Talk You Can Sing as well as one called Rewilding the Voice. She’s been called :the godmother of the natural voice singing movement

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

Catherine Roma discusses leading singing in prisons.

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 Network. They each bring a rich history of singing and directing choirs and ta deep commitment to the empowerment and community that singing together creates. https://www.communitychoirleadership.com/index.php

The power and joy of shape note singing offers a way to find community and energy through this traditional style.

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 years at Chevron. Chau lives in Walnut Creek, California, with her husband Jim, and is a grateful mother of two daughters and a grandmother of four.

A discussion of the power of music in the Minneapolis resistance.

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.

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 are dying, in coma and with folks who are incarcerated. Kate knows that this work is deep and serious and she offers a fresh, lively, sometimes irreverent, always relevant perspective. for more information https://thresholdchoir.org/kate-munger/ Threshold: the choir who sing to the dying - documentaryhttps://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2025/dec/12/threshold-the-choir-who-sing-to-the-dying-documentary​

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 awarded their highest accolade by EFDSS – the gold badge for ‘outstanding and unique contribution to the art of folk song.’ In each of those settings, bringing people together to sing in harmony has been a major feature of her work, as an expression of her deeply held belief that group singing is a magical activity which binds people together, and helps us to understand each other and the world we live in. Sandra comes to us from northern England. https://www.sandrakerr.net/

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 cultural centers. Jake Johnson examines the everyday role of music as a form of world-building and myth-making, drawing insights from diverse communities. Our conversation explores the role of music in Mormon culture but moves beyond that into realms of identity, memory, and belong. For more information go to www.JakeJohnsonPhd.com.

Stacy Horn is an author and singer who talks in this podcast about how singing in a community choir provided a bridge to wholeness and community. It's been a long term commitment. Although she considers herself an average singer, she urges anyone with an interest to try singing as a remedy that can help bring sanity to a difficult world. More information about Stacy here.

Ruth Pelham is a songwriter, activist, and community organizer. Ruth spent over thirty years bringing music to street corners, libraries, festivals, and other neighborhood spaces in her hometown of Albany. In the process, she created songs that are instantly singable and adaptable, and she learned daily about the power of singing to build relationships and community. Ruth's website.