About Us
How it all started.....
Compass Choir, Cranbrook’s community choir, was set up at the beginning of 2019 to support the health and wellbeing of our community. All ages and all singing abilities are very welcome.
The choir was launched with a fundraising concert in support of The Sam West Foundation, a local charity set up in memory of 15 year old Sam who died by suicide in January 2018.
There is a link to a YouTube video of the concert in the Gallery section of the website.
Our aim is to bring people together in an uplifting experience that enhances social, emotional and physical wellbeing.
And in the words of our music leader, Ralph ‘Ginger’ Millington, “it doesn’t matter if you didn’t get into the school choir, can’t read music, can’t dunk a biscuit or you wear odd socks! You don’t have to commit to every week or stay for the whole rehearsal. Just pop along for an instant pick-me-up!!”
Research tells us time and time again that being in a choir is beneficial on so many levels. Singing of any kind makes us feel better and the effect is enhanced by singing with others. But being in a choir can give us a better sense of belonging to a community and connecting with other people. And with this comes the ability to talk, share and listen.
THE TEAM:
Ralph "Ginger" Millington
Ginger is our musical director. He keeps us on the musical straight and narrow with his clear direction and enthusiastic manner. He also prepares fantastic arrangements of well-known songs for us to sing.
Anna Picken
Anna deals with a lot of the choir's admin-related tasks. She produces the weekly newsletter, 'Compass Points', she is the treasurer, is responsible for making sure everyone has all the music they need and runs the website as well.
Frances Yonge
Frances, an extremely talented pianist, is our accompanist. She also takes rehearsals when Ginger is not available. As well as keeping Ginger and the choir together, she is able to come up with brilliant harmonisations of the unison songs we sing when she only has the words to go on.
Nye Jones
Nye is the Choir's chair. He is a fantastic organiser and the choir runs very smoothly as a result. He is great at committee meetings with his ability to keep everyone on track... and smiling!
Ian Fletcher
Ian has a huge amount of experience in running choirs, particularly in relation to financial matters, which has proved to be invaluable. He also helps keep our feet on the ground when our plans for the future get a little too ambitious. He is also our link with the Vestry Hall.
Mike Hoare
Mike is our concerts supremo and so has the unenviable task of making sure that every aspect of our performances runs like clockwork. He sings with another choir who successfully used Zoom for rehearsals and his input on this subject when we ran our own lockdown Zoom rehearsals was extremely useful.