Isobel Trenouth

I have been singing since the age of three. Passionate about singing and acting throughout my school and university life, I was as happy playing Baloo the Bear in a production of Jungle Book as I was taking on Shakespeare’s Viola in Twelfth Night. Later in life, I trained as an actress at Bristol University’s Acting Academy but after raising a family of four children, it was singing that called me the loudest.

In my home town of Bristol I have sung in a range of settings from a small chapel choir to large community choirs, via a scratch affair for a circus show and a number of musical theatre productions. I signed up for singing lessons and took the ABRSM exam grades in an effort to model singing as something everyday for my children. Three of them duly followed suit and they all still sing to this day, two professionally.

In 2013, I was inspired by the astonishing results of a research programme being conducted by the charity Tenovus with Cardiff University, investigating the effects of group singing on people with cancer. It concluded that not only do we feel good – the result of our brains being flooded with feel-good chemicals – but also our immunity is boosted. Motivated by these incredible findings, I joined the volunteer team at Penny Brohn Cancer Care, a local complementary medical centre for people with a cancer diagnosis, and set about establishing a choir for the centre’s clients and their loved ones. The choir was led by Wendy Sergeant, an immensely talented local choir director and arranger, who inspired me to train as a choir leader and kindly mentored me through those first few nervy months. 

Isobel Trenouth
Isobel Trenouth
Wendy Sergeant leading the Penny Brohn Community Choir singing Lean on Me by Bill Withers Arr Wendy Sergeant at the Best of the West Concert at the Colston Hall, Bristol, in 2015

I ran and then directed the Penny Brohn Community Choir until 2017, when I set up Mood Swingers, a female acapella community choir of some forty singers, who performed twice a year. Working with singers of all abilities, Mood Swingers really embedded my belief that everyone can sing and that so many people have been shut down by criticism of their singing ability at school. Encouraging women quite literally to find their voice was a complete joy.

In March 2017, I developed the concept of SingSquad – a large scratch choir of singers of all abilities invited to come together for a fun evening of group harmony singing of a pop song. The first event, where we learnt and sang Toto’s Africa was followed by a memorable Christmas SingSquad two years later at which close to a hundred people belted out Slade’s So Here it is Merry Christmas in four part harmony. 

London One World Choir Flyer

Alongside Mood Swingers, in 2018, I joined the London One World Choir, an auditioned group brought together to perform a choral theatre production in a number of London venues the following year. The show was conceived by Helen Yeomans, a prodigious and hugely talented community choir leader, composer, arranger and trainer.

At the end of the run, I approached Helen and proposed that she and I join forces, keep the choir going and co-teach our monthly rehearsal sessions in London. We had a year of great singing and performance in the Kings Cross Baptist Church and I was so lucky to be mentored by Helen through this time.

And then Covid hit . . . but just before it did, Helen and I managed to squeeze in a wonderful SingSquad weekend residential retreat of acapella singing attended by thirty six singers. It was the last large group singing to be enjoyed for over a year.

Within the restrictions of the pandemic, I established first a trio and then a sextet – when we were permitted to meet in groups of six with the windows open – and this formed the basis of Glorious Alchemy, the auditioned choir I now direct and also sing in. Members originate from all the choirs I have worked with in both London and Bristol and much of our repertoire comes from the wonderful catalogues of arrangements available from my two mentors, Wendy and Helen.

I have continued to focus on the themes first encountered with the London One World Choir of social justice, peace, freedom and climate change. As a choir we have now extended this ethos and set up a charitable trust, Welcome Bureau, to provide support to those seeking refuge from the war in Ukraine. All proceeds from Glorious Alchemy concerts and SingSquad events go directly to Welcome Bureau.