Music for Education and Wellbeing Podcast – with Sam Chaplin, leader of the London branch of The Choir with No Name

In this new podcast, Anita Holford, co-editor of Music Education Works, is talking with Sam Chaplin, a community choir and music workshop leader who is also a singer-songwriter, jazz trumpeter, pianist, composer and arranger.

Sam’s music leading has centred around people experiencing challenges in their lives in one way or another. He leads the London branch of the Choir with No Name, which is for homeless or marginalised people; has led choirs for women whose children have been taken into care; a choir for people affected by the Grenfell fire; and a Maggie’s Centre choir for people affected by cancer. He is also a tutor with the Orpheus Centre, leading their songwriting weeks in prisons and with disabled people.

We talk about:

• How accompanying an older people’s choir inspired him to become a vocal leader
• How community choir leading is ‘caught rather than taught’
• The four Cs: connection, confidence, congratulations and the catharsis of ‘singing it out’
• Sing it Out, the song on Sam’s new album inspired by The Choir With No Name
• The value of peer mentors as part of advocating for the choir
• Making music more central in everyone’s lives

You can access the podcast via a blog on our main website – Podcast [31] The benefits of singing in a choir, with Sam Chaplin from The Choir With No Name, or on iTunes or Spotify (search for Music for Education & Wellbeing).