Maddy Prior Song Week

Maddy Prior MBE and her daughter Rose-Ellen Kemp BSc (Hons), supported by Jerry King, return to Halsway in 2026 for another song week dedicated to the voice. Maddy and Rose-Ellen have been teaching people and their voices at their own teaching centre, Stones Barn in Cumbria, for many years, and we're delighted to host them in the South West. The course will be for singers of all levels who want to work to build confidence, progress and improve their singing, and learn about voicing and the voice itself.

Working both all together, and in smaller groups, you’ll have fun learning practical techniques to improve and maintain the voice, gain knowledge of vocal anatomy and physiology and hear some interesting insights into the current voice research. In the smaller groups you have the option to work individually with one of the leaders, with the supportive audience of your fellow group members. You will also – of course – enjoy some group singing for the sheer love of it.

A programme, timetable and music/lyrics sheets will be available nearer the time. We will also be joined by Jerry King, a pianist and music theory expert who can assist with learning the pieces and to quickly answer any queries you may have about the written music.

Each evening participants can gather in the bar to put these new techniques into practice during informal sing-around performances; these are hugely enjoyable and a chance to extend your confidence.

Past participants have found the course to be an absorbing and fulfilling singing experience.

Who is it for?

All levels and styles of singer! We believe everybody should sing if they want to.

This includes:

• Professionals and amateurs

• people who love to sing and want to sing better

• those who are interested in the technical aspects of the voice and singing

• those who feel they are terrified of singing/people who want to sing but were told they couldn’t

• people who haven’t sung in a while

• people who easily lose their voice after a short amount of singing

• people who think their voice has been affected by aging.

We will give you a lot of support, information, encouragement and YET MORE support to get your singing up to the next level from where you currently are.

The Team

Maddy Prior MBE is one of the best known voices from the English folk revival, with a career spanning over fifty years. A founding member of Steeleye Span (since 1969) she has toured the world and continues to tour and record with them today. Maddy graduated from The Complete Vocal Institute in Denmark after completing a 3 year course to become a singing teacher. She was the key note speaker at the Folk Expo in 2016. She was awarded the MBE for services to folk music, has a gold pin from BASCA, is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cumbria and, in 2015 was honoured with the Gold Badge Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society. As an interpreter of traditional music as well as a songwriter, Maddy has been cited as an influence by many successful artists. She established Stones Barn in Cumbria as a centre for courses in music, poetry and performance which she runs in partnership with daughter Rose.

Rose-Ellen Kemp began touring alongside her parents as a child. She started performing as a solo artist at age 15 and continued touring Europe and the UK for the next 10 years playing many prestigious shows, festivals, TV and radio sessions. Rose-Ellen signed to Bjork’s record label One Little Indian Records for a time and released an E.P. and three critically acclaimed albums. Her music encompasses many genres including; progressive rock, classic rock, choral, drone-metal, doom-metal, stoner rock and sludge, all with a solid grounding in the melody of the English folk tradition. Rose-Ellen is known for her uncompromising writing style and extremely far-reaching vocal ability. She is able to demonstrate large variation of tone, intensity and texture. Rose-Ellen has been a vocal tutor teaching mainly vocal technique since 2003. With a view to being better able to assist singers to establish greater self-esteem through enhanced self-expression, she studied at Newcastle University. During the 4 years studying on the Speech and Language Sciences BSc (Hons) course, Rose-Ellen expanded her knowledge of voice and communication pathologies as well as other relevant subjects; head and neck anatomy and physiology, psychology, neurology, phonetics, phonology, linguistics and child development. Rose-Ellen has also recently completed Singing For Lung Health training.

Jerry King was organist at Lanercost Priory for 20 years before moving to the post of Director of Music at St Cuthbert’s in Carlisle in 2012. He has sung with the Brampton Chamber Choir since 2000, becoming its Musical Director in 2011, the same year that he became the accompanist for what was then called the Brampton Players Choir but later morphed into the Brampton and District Community Choir. He recently relinquished the conducting post at the Chamber Choir and started the Eden Wild Goose Community Choir in Wetheral. He also runs a small business repairing musical instruments in schools and divides his remaining time between teaching in schools, taking weekly choir practices, private tuition on piano and guitar and playing keyboards & Bass in a touring band - The League of Ukulele Gentlemen.