Twenty years ago, Tanya Sparke founded a children’s choir in Newtown called Cicada. Two decades later — emerging from the silence of COVID lockdowns and a world-wide ban on singing — she decided it was time to bring them back.

Those children are now in their late teens and twenties. Many of them have been singing with Tanya since they were six or eleven years old. Mouthtrap was built from that long relationship, and it shows. This is not your usual choir, and that’s exactly the point.

Tanya hunts independently released music with genuine obsession, seeking out songs that have no business being choral repertoire .Her arrangements are written specifically for these voices, never off the shelf. Original tunes are written and developed by the choir.

Repertoire includes:

Original works by Tanya Sparke — Darkwood Road, Angel Fish, There is the Sea — alongside original pieces by Mouthtrap members.

Works by Samia, Diane Cluck, Laura Veirs, Funkadelic, Lucinda Williams and Eliana Glass, with traditional pieces including Ergen Deda (Bulgarian) and Regnet Kom (Danish).

Accompanied by cello, double bass, percussion, and guitars — and of course a cappella.

Contact the host of MOUTHTRAP