Christine Rose
When your mentor provides a strapline it will go here
In establishing a Rock Choir, I share some of the power, solace and joy that music and the sharing of music gave me as a troubled child. Rock really can change the world!
I can't remember when I started playing the piano - I must have been six years old. I can still hear the sound of my teacher Mrs Hilyard's scratchy pencil as she wrote numbers all over the music - the numbers being which finger I should use correctly on each note! My father would wait for me in the car outside, listening to the radio. It was mind-numbingly dull.
When I was eleven I was asked to sing a solo in front of the school (about 400 kids) of Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind . I was so terrified I very nearly wet myself.
My soul cried; "this isn't music - this is scary"!
But I had a secret - I loved to ROCK! When I was ten I won a dance competition for my routine to Billy Joel's Still Rock an' Roll To Me (top tune!), a medal I still treasure. Beneath the Beethoven, Debussy, and Poulenc that I had to play for exams, I danced and sang to Prince, Janet Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Madonna. INXS, etc etc. The first ever vinyl record I bought from Woolworths in Dunstable, was Julian Lennon's funky 'Too Late For Goodbyes -
My childhood was very difficult; I was a lonely, anxious and at times angry child, but there was always one place I felt safe - and that place was music. I'd drag my French Horn case to school orchestra and somehow all my worries would disappear for an hour: I didn't have to talk or make awkward conversation; my and my peers would leave our bodies behind and dissolve into the music a while.. The world was somehow fresher and more infinitely possible after those rehearsals.
My 'grown-up' experience/qualifications:
Pianist/Accompanist - various - school choirs; theatre performances including many children's shows with Perform Media Ltd - London based drama company for 3 - 8 yr olds
Piano Teacher - children up to Grade 5
Drama/singing teacher - Perform Media Ltd as well as 1:1 work
Professional Actor (graduate of Oxford School of Drama) - various roles - London fringe inc Gate Theatre; Hampstead Theatre; Hope & Anchor -
Musical Director/MC - various childrens' performances with Perform, school talent shows & Fundraising events
Quizmaster - various London pubs with Question One - London quiz company
Youth Club Manager - improving Charity Youth Club
Secondary English Teacher
SEN experience - have taught children with almost every kind of 'difficulty' or challenging life circumstance
Life Experience
Have learned a great deal about life and people from recent Care work (home for dementia patients) & silver service waitressing on the Blue Bell Railway!
Greatest Passion aside from music: Woodland Walks