Voice-works Autumn '26 Study Weekend:
Your Desert Island Songs
26 – 27 September 2026 · Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire, UK
A two-day exploration of the songs that continue to call you back, whether newly discovered or long held close. Your Desert Island Songs opens the new Voice-works year with space for singing, listening, reflection, and shared discovery as we begin shaping a more personal relationship with repertoire over time.
Singer applications deadline: Saturday, 15th August 2026.
Why not catch the Early Bird Reward Plan before it closes on Saturday, 13th June 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?
You certainly do not need to have joined us in September to ask those questions. Anyone can begin this process at any point. All that is required is a folder of songs that matters to you and a willingness to look at it with fresh eyes.
Over time, some pieces gather strength and importance. Others begin to fade into the background. New discoveries arrive unexpectedly. The repertoire itself starts to reveal patterns and preferences that are often difficult to see while we are busy learning individual songs.
Through singing, listening, study, reflection, and repetition, we begin to learn not only about the repertoire 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 logistical details. This will be a day (or weekend!) where we collaborate closely to create an experience that truly serves us as singers — positive, supportive, and focused on your growth.
To help keep us connected before, you’ll have access to The Green Room, our private online space where you can ask questions, share ideas, and get encouragement from me and the other singers. (Currently, this is hosted on Facebook, but I’m always looking for ways to make this space as welcoming and easy to use as possible.)
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
