Cat is an inspirational Vocal Leader with over a decade of experience in the community music sector. She has been a regular workshop leader at
Towersey Folk Festival since 2005, leading exhilarating and high energy singing sessions that still regularly attract over 100 participants. She has also led workshops as a number of other festivals including Sidmouth, Bromyard, Chippenham, and the community singing festival SingFest.
Cat has started five community choirs from scratch, including Oxford's popular a cappella choir
Rising Voices, the newly formed but hugely popular
Chipping Norton Singers, and a choir for members of the Mental Health charity Restore. She has been a guest conductor for Oxford Community Choir and Winchester Community Choir, among others, and has also acted as a consultant for other emerging singing groups in the area.
In 2012 Cat directed a community choir made up of
disabled and able-bodied participants to sing at the arrival of the Paralympic Flame in Aylesbury, as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Cat can also deliver singing workshops for people with
special needs, including singing with
Makaton.
Cat has delivered workshops in a variety of SEN settings; for deafblind teenagers on behalf of
SENSE, for adults with Mental Health difficulties on behalf of the
Restore charity, for adults with cerebral Palsy in association with
Drake Music (as part of the Welcome Songs project for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad), and for young disabled children and their carers. Cat works with song as well as a variety of musical instruments, and will tailor workshops to the needs of the participants, adapting existing material or creating her own. Cat is a qualified
Makaton Local Tutor and is one of seven licensed practitioners delivering
Singing with Makaton training sessions in the UK. Cat is a firm believer in the use of Makaton to aid communication, and believes that the combination of Makaton with singing can be very powerful. Cat worked with
Sing Up and The Makaton Charity to develop resources for their Singing with Makaton training course, including structured activity sheets, a
collection of signed song videos, and a 'train the trainer' course.