Community Choirs
My choirs are joyful places of laughter, musical-usefulness, unscariness and goodness and you should totally join one (or any choir for that matter!) I lead choirs in Southern Tasmania, and occasionally workshops in other places.
You don’t need to be a confident singer or be able to read music to join. Choirs are magic and it all just works. If you’re curious, just rock up! If you’re nervous, keep reading on this page for all my unscary enthusing and explaining.
Current Choirs are The Cygnet Song Circle, Little Boat Choir, Huon Homeschool Choirs and Cygnet Singamamma.
Current DIY Choirs are Hannam Vale DIY and Port Macquarie Singamamma.
I run a Tuesday night Cygnet choir, a Wednesday night Franklin choir, a Tuesday morning mum’s choir in Cygnet and a Thursday morning homeschool kids choir. All the choirs are non-auditioned, welcoming and open to new members all the time.
The Cygnet Song Circle
This choir meets on Tuesday nights in the Cygnet Town Hall, 6.30-8.00pm. You don’t need any experience or skills to join. We stand in a circle, sit in a semi-circle, laugh a lot and perform when and if we want to in a light hearted and supported way.
Who: All humans who want to sing. This is a mixed voice adult community choir, and enthusiastic teens are also welcomed. Everyone can sing.
What: Acapella songs (and occasional accompanied songs) in 3 and 4 part harmony. Varied and plentiful goodness, ranging from gospel to world to folk to contemporary to whatever else I happen to rustle up. Sometimes we team up with the Franklin choir to create more epicness.
Cost: First time you come is free. Thereafter $15 per session.
How: Just rock up. No need to contact me or book in unless you want to.
Little Boat Choir
This choir meets on Wednesday nights at the Franklin Palais, 7.00-8.30pm. You don’t need any experience or skills to join. We stand in a circle, sit in a semi-circle, laugh a lot and perform when and if we want to in a light hearted and supported way.
Who: All humans who want to sing. This is a mixed voice adult community choir, and enthusiastic teens are also welcomed. Everyone can sing.
What: Acapella songs (and occasional accompanied songs) in 3 and 4 part harmony. Varied and plentiful goodness, ranging from gospel to world to folk to contemporary to whatever else I happen to rustle up. Sometimes we team up with the Cygnet choir to create more epicness.
Cost: First time you come is free. Thereafter $15 per session.
How: Just rock up. No need to contact me or book in unless you want to.
Cygnet Singamamma
Who: Mum’s with kids in tow, or sans kids who could just about manage 45mins to do a nice thing right after school drop off. The choir is for the mums, not for the kids. We accept the distractions and noise that come with kids present, and kids remain the responsibility of their parent. Kids end up learning everything anyway, probably even more so because it’s never directed at them!
What: Acapella songs from all around, all with meaningful and wonderful lyrics. We set up toys. We sing in a circle. Babies and kids potter around. It’s magical. I used to run a choir like this in the past, and the ABC did an article/radio report on it here.
When: Tuesday mornings, 9.15-10am, St Marks Hall Cygnet.
Cost: First time you come is free. Thereafter $10 per session.
How: Just rock up!
Huon Homeschool Choir
A fortnightly mixed voices children’s choir for the Huon Homeschool Community. Meeting on fortnightly Thursday mornings in Ranalagh , with an extra session after for a senior group. A welcoming, dynamic group building skills and awesomeness.
Who: Homeschooled kids 9+ (8’s welcome if they are very keen and capable).
What: Rounds, partner songs, call and response and harmony songs. Some acapella, some with guitar or keyboard and some with backing track. We seek out community events to perform at.
Cost: First time you come is free. Thereafter $10 per session per child, capped at paying for 2 children per family.
How: Contact me.
It’s not often I come across something that makes me feel like I am experiencing the world for the first time, but being in Rose’s choir has made me feel this way. When I first joined the choir, I was not even sure I would be able to sing. But in the warm, safe, lighthearted space that Rose creates, I am learning to sing, and I am having a fascinating, exhilarating and sometimes hilarious journey of musical discovery.
Cherie Saxby, LoVoCo choir member
The Common Worries
(and why you don’t need to worry them….)
“…but I can’t sing…”
Yes you can. What’s harder is remembering that you can when you live in a culture which has taken the magical and beautiful thing of singing and commodified it, says only a few can do it, and that you only should if you’re amazing. That is wrong. You’re allowed to sing, and when you feel safe and surrounded by other voices, also feeling safe and joyful, you’d be amazed how good you can sound and feel. Go read my Unscary Singing Manifesto on the home page.
You will never be asked to sing solo (unless you want), you will never be put on the spot, no one will give you side-eye when you open your mouth, and it will all be ok. You’ll forget you thought you couldn’t sing.
‘…but I can’t read music…”
Doesn’t matter in the slightest. It makes zero difference to your abillty to learn songs, sing, have a good time and sound awesome. I teach everything by ear anyways. I will often provide sheet music, but there is zero expectation that you will look at it and know what you to do with it. I will tell you handy things though, like how to follow it and start recognising contour.
“…but I can’t hold a harmony…”
This is again something that’s come from a culture which doesn’t realise creative things are skills. They can be learnt. If we don’t swim in them culturally, which generally we here don’t, then they can be explicitly learned. I help you, choir helps you, other singers help you and you’ll learn it.
‘…but I’m a pretty good singer and I’ll get bored…”
One of the things I am most proud of my choiry-self of has been the creation of spaces that move quickly and interestingly, while still staying warm and safe. My brain moves quick, and so do my choirs. Yet it all still works. I don’t quite know how, magic I suspect. If you are a seasoned singer, I’m balancing your interest and fulfilment as much as I’m balancing the pace and energy for those who are new to choirs. And there’s always room for soloists!
Rose is bright, enthusiastic & full of great ideas. Singing with Rose is pure happiness, with vocal tips thrown in along the way! I can’t recommend Rose highly enough as a competent, encouraging and thoroughly excellent singing and choir teacher/leader.
Libby Baker, Mosaic choir member
If you feel a bit nervous, just try coming along once.
You don’t even need to sing if you don’t want to, although most people who come thinking they’ll just watch do end up singing! Many folks come along feeling a bit nervous at first, and without fail the nerves are all gone 10 minutes into the singing. You don’t need to read music, you don’t need to be a great singer, you don’t need to worry that we’ll all look at you funny when you start singing, you just get to come, sing, be merry and see how this singing together thing works and join in the magic-making.
It’s easy to think that Rose’s skill as a teacher just comes from a combination of her phenomenal voice and her relaxed, warm approach. But after singing with her for over a year, with different tips arising every week (!), I realise Rose must have a truly giant bag of knowledge to draw from, to so flexibly meet the needs of such diverse singers, with such ease!”
Rachel Sheppard, Singamamma Choir Member
A drawing given to me, drawn while watching one of my choirs sing. The draw-er titled it ‘Rose’s Choir of Love’ and promptly came and joined the choir. Remains one of the best things I’ve ever been given.
Things the choirs have done!
In December 2024, we (the combined Cygnet Song Circle and Little Boat Choir) had the glorious good fortune to be part of a beautiful, surprise 80th birthday concert for Bob Brown. It was really ridiculously wonderful, and we can offically say that we have now been on the same ticket as Claire Anne Taylor, Shane Howard and John Butler!
In Autumn and Spring, the Cygnet Song Circle sings at this beautiful local Garden Market event, which is run as a fundraiser for good local things. We sing inside, we sing outside, we sing merry.
In June 2024, the choir, as well as community participants, sang in a group of around 100 singers led by Rose, singing songs of light and dark and winter at the Cygnet Lantern Parade.
In July 2024, the choir sang in a few events as part of The Festival of Voices. Here we are, combined with the Franklin Little Boat Choir, singing at the regional singers lounge. The choir went into Hobart the following week to sing a popup set at Salamanca Place.
As part of the 2024 Cygnet Folk Festival, Rose led a massive choir, made up of the Cygnet and Franklin choirs, as well as workshop folk who learnt this song, to sing at this event. The Seed, as arranged by the Melbourne Indie Voices and sung a Bob Brown’s Earth Celebration concert.
Rose learnt this birthday song, from the wonderful choir human Jessie Vintilla years ago, and sings it everywhere. It is wonderful, and we sing it each week to choir members when it is their birthday, and we sing it at concerts when we find someone who’s birthday it is!