Somewhat surprisingly, I've been offered a new position with the choir I started 36 years ago: since returning to Sydney in April, I’ve been sort of consulting and directing with the Café of the Gate of Salvation, filling in while the choir’s ongoing conductors, Fi...

The party of the year! Pleasantly exhausted now after Summersong 2023, and lounging about in Mullumbimby with the beloved and good friends: the camp was, I think, a total success. In my two morning classes, we reached some outrageous moments of driving joy, lustrous...

After a two-year hiatus— for obvious reasons— our favourite long-running adult music camp/party is back in the new year with a new venue, some new tutors and a huge sigh of relief. We're now holding the camp in Byron Bay, at the prestigious SAE music studio complex,...

Now that it's close to Christmas, time for an update on my most recent travels. Jann & I spent an exhilarating month of touring through New Zealand, from Arrowtown to Auckland. I had some wonderful workshops in Arrowtown, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington,...

There has been a vast amount of interest in our planned 11th Gospel Tour in 2023 — but with the current lack of stability in the world it feels to us to be too soon to take 40 singers into a financially/politically/ medically uncertain situation. So we are postponing...

Feels good to be working again. October has been a busy month for me, with workshops in Hobart, many rehearsals and a couple of gigs in Sydney. I've been back with the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation since July, acting as an interim director and working on new material;...

One of the regular participants on my weekly ZOOM singing sessions offered me some unexpected feedback the other night. Since first using Zoom, I’ve been thinking all along that the inability for us to hear each other was a major drawback and that meeting online was a...

I've been in NZ now for nine months, which is nine months too long away from my beloved, who is still in Sydney. I came here in April to spend time with my dear friend Fane before he passed (Fane died on June 17, 2021), then stayed on to work —until lockdown happened...

I've finally added a new song to my series of a cappella mp3 tutorials: Lord I Know I’ve Been Changed, which features my friend Nicole Taylor from the Napier band No Engine on alto and soprano.  This is a slow12/8 song with a bluesy feel (I generally resist using such...

I’m running another Zoom session on CHOIR DIRECTING on Thursday August 26 2021, 6pm -7pm AEST./ 8pm-9pm NZ This is for all song leaders AND singers, so please join me for a Q&A around what we get up to when we find ourselves in front of a choir. How do we get the...

The Bend's We Disappear is selling steadily through online stores in NZ like Flying Out and Rockstuff - and our Facebook page is now a thing, so if you want to be notified about what the Bend gets up to, we would love you to hit the old Like button......

So it was a fabulous weekend workshop in Machans Beach, just out of Cairns, the steamy climate outside matched by the wildness and heat generated by the singers in the room. Thanks to Genevieve and Phil for the local knowledge & logistics, and thanks to all who...