Mike Leigh

I am an Anglican minister and a "natural voice" practitioner, which is basically a song leader who uses songs from across the world that are sung without instruments (ie. acapella singing). I have been running singing workshops and choirs with this type of music for over 20 years. Natural voice singing works really well in helping and encouraging people to sing in harmony and learn to have confidence in their voice; we learn lots of songs that are fun to learn, don`t require the need to read music, but are also challenging and inspiring. I have a background in classical music and worked professionally in the world of opera but have over many years developed a keen interest in the way natural voice singing creates community, builds self-confidence and opens the channels of our awareness of God and other people; and so we spend time learning to be attentive to ourselves, to each other, to God and his creation. I have been working at Scargill with Shaun Lambert (a specialist in Christian Mindfulness) and we have developed a way of combining Mindfulness and Song that is both healing and empowering and some of this practice will be shared over the weekend.

Retreats led by Mike Leigh