Lizzie Deane: Summer Pop Singing Workshop

Lizzie Deane is in the house! Literally. Rudolf Steiner House in London. A Lizzie Singing Nest workshop means: a lot of laughter, some sobbing (mostly me) and a huge dollop of uplifting loveliness  – me again :) – and a dawning realisation that you’re at your happiest when you’re singing.

Lizzie does that to you. She sprinkles her magic, leaving you in that rare state between blubbing and hysterics. What a great evening.

And the best bit! No experience needed. If you can hum, you can come.

This is an evening workshop built around harmony, heartfelt songs (specially arranged for the workshop by Lizzie), and the sort of atmosphere that makes you think, “Why don’t I do this more often?”

Good question. We don’t run these special workshops very often — so when one pops up, grab your place. You’ll feel exactly like someone who just snuffled up the last ticket to a Taylor Swift concert. Or the first cup from a fresh pot of tea. You know the feeling.

The theme this time? Summer pop songs,  taught in gorgeous harmonies. No music-reading required, and guaranteed to be stuck in your head for at least a week.

And yes,  we should mention it. Lizzie and the Hawkstone Farmers Choir recently hit the Golden Buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent. We’re absurdly proud. Also feeling extremely vindicated, thank you very much.

Lizzie Deane has one of those CVs that makes you wonder how one person fits it all in. She’s toured and performed with Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley (the JB Horns), Boy George, Belinda Carlisle, Mica Paris and Jocelyn Brown, among others – and she’s graced stages from The 606 Club in Chelsea to Glastonbury.

But if you’ve been anywhere near a television recently, you might also know her as the musical director of the Hawkstone Farmers Choir – the 32-strong group of real British farmers, originally brought together by Jeremy Clarkson, who landed Amanda Holden’s Golden Buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent with a spine-tingling performance of Elbow’s “One Day Like This”. Lizzie arranged the harmonies, rehearsed the parts, and turned a group of farmers into one of the most talked-about acts on television. We’re not remotely surprised.

What makes Lizzie extraordinary as a workshop leader is the same thing that makes her extraordinary as a musical director: she gets people singing beyond what they thought they could do. She’s warm, she’s funny, she’s endlessly patient, and she has a knack for making a room full of strangers sound genuinely beautiful – usually within the first twenty minutes.