Seeds of hope- A selection of inspiring community songs

Join us for an hour of truly inspiring communitysongs including traditional songs for other parts of the world, original songs by female community songs composers from different parts of the world including a song by our own choir director Lala Simpson and a few songs by singer, song writer, choir leader, and activist Penny Stone. ALL THE PROFITS FROM THIS CONCERT WILL BE DONATED TO Penny Stone to support her work in her community and globally. KOHA ENTRY. THANK YOU FOR GIVING GENEROUSLY.

KOTABA VOICES is an inclusive community choir fo all those who identify as women. We believe in giving everyone the opportunity to contribute their voice to the magic world of community singing. All voices matter. We hold no auditions and all songs are taught by ear. During our rehearsals, we offer expertly guided warm-ups to support singers of all levels. We draw our repertoire from different community singing traditions around the world with themes that matter to us as women, mothers, sisters, friends, daughters, grandmothers, wives and citizens of the earth. Most of our songs are in 3-part harmony.

LALA SIMPSON, our director is a community singer, song writer and songleader originally from Madagascar whose passion and skills have supported many singers. She also directs the Wellington Community Choir, leads an intergenerational community singing group in Mangaroa, acts as a guest conductor for community choirs in the Wellington Region. She often runs singing workshops and retreats in Wellington and travels overseas leading singing camp sharing her love of Malagasy songs.

PENNY STONE is a singer, composer, choir leader and activist from Scotland. This is what she says :

"Hi, my name is Penny Stone and I’m a songleader, teacher, singer and composer.

As a songleader and singing teacher I have a breadth of experience working with community singing groups and radical music groups. I facilitate singing with groups of people living with shared experiences such as addiction, navigating mental health support services, and surviving violence and abuse. I also use singing to support people living with chronic health conditions such as Parkinson’s and dementia.

I am committed to working for peace and social and environmental justice, helping to free people’s voices through listening, singing, campaigning and writing. I write and perform music, as well as facilitating others music making, with the same aspiration of speaking honestly about the world around us in firm belief that another world is possible."