Connecting Voices

1st & 3rd Saturdays, 2-4pm

Free and no booking required, just turn up.

Dates

• Sept – 5 & 19 Sept
• Oct – 3 & 17 Oct
• Nov – 7 & 21 Nov
• Dec – 5 & 19 Dec then Winter Break

Connecting Voices is a place to sing together.

It’s a group where people come together to use their voices, singing, making experimental sounds, and playing with vocal exercises. The group meets twice a month.

Our aim is to foster a supportive, encouraging space where all members feel comfortable sharing their voice, regardless of experience. We want people to feel free to be loud and quiet, to connect musically and sonically with each other’s pitches, sounds, accents and stories, and to draw on musicians, artists and artistic ideas to experiment with voice.

What makes this work is a shared ambition to expand what’s possible as a collective. It’s an open, experimental space where harmony and discordance are both tools, and where listening, adjusting and making room for others is part of the flow, facilitated and encouraged by singing group leader Lara Macleod.

We’ll sing songs both familiar and new, try out new compositions, and create our own songs and soundscapes. The group will work with artists toward public performance, while keeping a strong focus on developing connections within the group and making time to share stories through and about song.

Everyone is welcome. Anyone who wants to use their voice, from complete beginners to regular singers and performers. It’s a space to meet others, enjoy time together, build confidence, and develop awareness of others through close listening and vocalising.

It’s for people who want to explore what singing and experimenting together can produce, seeking connection and discovery rather than perfection. We embrace difference and imperfection, learn to be together with others, and treat harmony and discordance as tools for listening to one another.

• No singing experience needed
• No need to read music
• We mostly learn songs by ear
• We learn together and adapt to the needs of the group

About the Group Leader Lara McLeod

I am an artist, designer and facilitator who believes creativity should be for everyone. I love helping people explore ideas, experiment with materials be that through the body and voice or pen and paper and turn imagination into collective experiences and tangible material experiments.

My work in product design, art-run projects, workshops and group facilitation and co-leading the vocal group Rhubaba choir for 12 years is focussed on bringing people together to explore their individual voice while connecting and listening with others. In these fields, I’ve collaborated with local choirs to create celebration songs and soundscapes, and worked with artists to design and make objects that reflect their identity and experience. I design and facilitate hands-on workshops where participants of all ages and abilities can learn, test and craft. This has ranged from building confidence and exploring creativity with children through sound sculptures to producing custom-designed products with disabled artists and producing artist Collaboration sound scapes.

I’m passionate about showing how art, design and music in an expanded way can make everyday life more playful, expressive, and meaningful. My goal is always to follow curiosity, encourage experimentation, and help people see what’s possible when creativity meets making from any starting point.

The project is in partnership with StAMP (St Andrews Music Participation) and delivered in partnership with Forgan Arts Centre.