abcd is hosting free fortnightly forum discussions and lectures led by our team of tutors and special guests on a wide range of choral topics. All webinars take place on Saturdays from 11:00 - 12:30.
In light of the ongoing situation with coronavirus and the immediate postponement of our Spring training programme and annual Choral Leaders' Festival abcd, like many other charitable arts organisations, faces a difficult few months. If you feel able to make a donation to help sustain the abcd community of staff and conductor tutors and to support the creation of innovative online resources, we would encourage you to do so here.
Chair: Jeremy Haneman
Panel: Michael Betteridge, Andrea Brown, Martin Brophy and Jane Edwardson
From its origins in America fifty years ago, the LGBTQ+ choir movement has grown to have a worldwide reach and has remained at the forefront of political and social change. With over 50 LGBTQ+ choirs now running in the UK, this webinar will explore the history of this choir movement and consider issues of repertoire, performance, organisational structures, access and inclusion. Why are LGBTQ+ choirs so important and what can all choirs learn from them?
To book a place at this webinar, please fill out the short booking form here and you'll receive the Zoom meeting details via email.
Find out more about our guest panel:
Jeremy Haneman is a Council member for abcd. He is the Co-Director of Together Productions which produces ground breaking artistic events that bring people together across difference. Since 2011 he has been the Community Chorus Director for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. From 1996-2001 Jeremy was the Musical Director for the London Gay Men's Chorus, under his leadership the chorus grew from 15 to 150 singers with a long waiting list, released its first CDs and did an international tour.
Martin Brophy sings with the London Gay Men's Chorus and is a founder and singer with the European Queer Choir. He is on the Board of Legato LGBTQ+ Choirs of Europe and is a former Board member and President of Gala Choruses the North American based LGBTQI+ Choruses Association and works with the Global Alliance of LGBTQI+ Choirs Associations. He's also an Organisational Consultant for charities and non-profits and is founding Director of Integra Planner - a powerful organisational system for event planners, choir festivals and events, conferences and organisations. Martin was awarded an MBE for services to music and LGBT community by HM the Queen in 2013. He lives in Islington and Brighton with his husband Raphael.
Jane Edwardson formed Gay Abandon, West Yorkshire's LGBT choir, in 1997 and has remained as the choir's MD ever since. This makes her the longest serving leader of an LGBT choir in the UK and Ireland. Jane also directed the lesbian a capella group the Deep 'C' Divas, most notably in their performance at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Gay Games Cultural Festival in 2002. Jane is noted as an arranger of a wide variety of accessible songs for community choirs and is an arranger for ChoirCommunity. For nearly ten years, Jane worked as a tutor on Sing for Pleasure's conductor training program.
Michael Betteridge is a composer, conductor and artistic director of The Sunday Boys - a low voiced, predominantly LGBT+ choir based in the heart of the city of Manchester. As a composer his output is eclectic and spans opera, orchestral, choral and musical theatre and his work has been performed across the UK and beyond including Iceland, Denmark, Canada and the USA, as well as featured on both BBC Radio 3 and 4. As a conductor he specialises in new music, often with amateur and young performers, having given the premieres of work by Philip Venables, Kerry Andrew, Anna Appleby, Andrew Keeling, Dominie Hooper, alongside his own work.
Andrea Brown is a UK-based Choral Conductor and academic. Currently Head of Choral Conducting at the RWCMD, she was recently elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for significant contribution to the field. Andrea has conducted a range of choirs and choral societies including the BBC Singers, the Philharmonia Chorus, NYCGB, London Oriana Choir, North London Chorus, ENO Community Choir and Southbank Centre's Voicelab at venues and international festivals.She has also devised and produced a diverse range of high profile music and cross-arts projects engaging with professional and amateur artists and venues to deliver high quality participatory and inclusive musical activity - significantly as Artistic Director