Voice-works Spring '27 Study Weekend:
Songs to Float Your Boat
16 – 17 January 2027 · Winsham, Somerset UK
A two-day exploration of the repertoire that continues to inspire, challenge, and carry you forward. Songs to Float Your Boat invites singers to spend time with the repertoire that matters most to them, discovering what those choices reveal about the voice, the imagination, and the singer behind them.
Singer applications deadline: Saturday, 5th December 2026.
Why not sign up now and catch the Early Bird Reward Plan before it closes on Saturday, 12th September 2026?
Living with repertoire.Â
One of the things I have become increasingly aware of, both in my own singing life and through working with singers over many years, is that repertoire has a life of its own. Some songs pass through us fleetingly. Others stay close for decades, revealing more and more of themselves as we change, develop, and grow older. Often, it is only with hindsight that we realise which pieces have truly become part of us, the songs we would never willingly give up the opportunity to sing.
Since September 2024, Voice-works study weekends have explored many different corners of vocal repertoire. We have looked at languages, styles, composers, and traditions, and, in doing so, laid important groundwork. But as we move into the tenth-anniversary year of The Voice School, I want to work with repertoire in a more searching and personally revealing way.
Your Desert Island Songs invited singers to begin gathering those pieces together. Not as a definitive collection, but as a starting point. A folder of repertoire that seemed important enough to keep close and worth paying attention to. As singers, we are constantly making choices about the music we carry forward with us, sometimes consciously, sometimes without even realising it.
Songs to Float Your Boat is the next opportunity to stop and take stock. To spread the map out on the table once again and look at what is beginning to emerge from those choices. Which songs continue to draw you back? Which pieces seem increasingly at home in your voice? Which repertoire gives you energy, sparks curiosity, and leaves you wanting to explore further?
Anyone can begin this process at any point in the Voice-works Study Weekend year. All you need is a folder of songs that matter to you and a willingness to explore them with fresh eyes.
Over time, some music gathers strength and importance. Others fade into the background. Discoveries arrive serendipitously. Your repertoire starts to reveal patterns and preferences that are often difficult to see while we are busy learning individual songs.
Through singing, listening, studying, reflection, and repetition, we begin to learn not only about repertoire issues but also about ourselves. The songs that continue to travel with us often have much to teach us about our artistic instincts, our imagination, our voice, and the kind of singer we are becoming.
Because ultimately, repertoire is never just repertoire.
The songs we choose, return to, struggle with, and carry forward all tell a story about who we are when we sing.
Very often, the work itself simply shines a light on something that was already there.
And that is the deeper thread running through this new Voice-works year.
What to Expect
This is a Voice-works Study Weekend, which means the focus is not simply on presentation, but on thoughtful exploration and genuine engagement with repertoire over time. Across the weekend, we'll be looking closely at what your chosen songs reveal about your voice, your technique, your musical instincts, and your developing relationship with the repertoire itself.
The atmosphere is supportive, generous, and purposeful. Voice-works weekends work best when singers arrive ready not only to sing, but to listen, observe, reflect, and stay fully engaged with the shared experience. Some of the most valuable learning happens while listening to somebody else work through a phrase, a technical challenge, or a musical idea that unexpectedly shines a light on your own singing.
Songs to Float Your Boat continues to develop the premise that repertoire reveals itself over time. The songs that continue to travel with us individually are rarely the ones we fully understand at first encounter. They deepen through repetition, familiarity, study, and experience. By returning to them, we begin to discover not only more about the music but more about ourselves.
We’ll be working in a small group, with a maximum of five singers, allowing plenty of space for detailed and focused work without rushing. There will be time for singing, discussion, listening, experimentation, and reflection as we explore the repertoire that is beginning to emerge as most significant within your folder.
Both days will take place in The Jubilee Hall, Winsham, Somerset, a much-loved and welcoming village hall with generous acoustics and plenty of space to work, listen, and think.
Please bring a packed lunch with you each day; hot drinks will be available throughout.
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The Weekend at a Glance ...
Ready to join me?
How to Take Part / Sign Up
Singer places are limited to a maximum of five to keep the working group focused, connected, and supportive. If you’re applying as a singer, you’ll be invited to bring a prepared folder of repertoire and to take an active part throughout the weekend.
Singer places are ÂŁ320 for the full weekend.
An Early Bird Reward Plan is available, offering singers who commit early the opportunity to spread the fee across four monthly instalments of £75 when booking before 12th September 2026. The longer lead-in allows time to gather your repertoire thoughtfully, live with the music for a while, and begin entering into the spirit of the New Year with Voice-works well before we meet together in January '27.
General workshop application deadline: Saturday, 5 December 2026, or earlier if places are filled.
Observers
Observers are very welcome to join us across the weekend in Winsham. You won’t simply be sitting at the back watching. Your presence matters, and many find that observing closely, listening, following scores, and reflecting on the work as it unfolds in the room is a valuable and inspiring way of learning.
If you’re not ready to sing this time, joining us as an observer can still be a meaningful way to take part in the new Voice-works year.
Observer day passes are available at ÂŁ20.
Still thinking about it?
If you’d like to keep in touch to receive updates about this and other Voice School events, you’re very welcome to join my mailing list by completing the form to the right. I send updates carefully and thoughtfully, always with singers like you in mind.
Stay in touch
See you inside The Green Room
Once you’ve signed up for the Study Weekend, I’ll be in touch personally to gather your thoughts and share all the practical details. This is very much a collaborative process, and part of the pleasure of these weekends comes from the conversations, questions, and discoveries that begin long before we arrive in Winsham.
To help keep us connected, you'll also be invited into the event's Green Room, our private online space for singers taking part in the weekend. It’s a place to enjoy a little encouragement and companionship as the event approaches.
By January, many of us will already have spent some time living with our folders of songs. The Green Room allows us to continue that conversation, compare notes, and begin exploring emerging ideas before we meet in person.
I’ll be with you every step of the way.
"It's essential to work on something you're deeply interested in. Interest will drive you to work harder than mere diligence ever could. The three most powerful motives are curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive. Sometimes they converge, and that combination is the most powerful of all."
Source: How to Do Great Work
