Bernadette "Bernie" Whelan of Crescendo CIC is a professional singer and has an MA in Popular Music. She also leads the Alder Hey Staff Choir. 

Her well-being choirs are a breath of fresh air, literally!  Through her company Crescendo, she trains and empowers in song by bringing communities of people together to form choirs. These choral workshops lead singers through ways of controlling and projecting voice through fun, warm-up vocal techniques which give a cardio vascular workout, improve lung capacity and release those feel good serotonin and endorphin happy hormones!

As she says, "The aim is that the choir is a health and wellbeing choir whether in the workplace, where it helps relieve stress, aids staff morale, brings people from all departments together and supports staff and hospital special events or as a form of therapy. Singing in a choir teaches people to build teamwork, self confidence and vocal projection ending in a choral performance, with a lot of fun and laughter on the way. Being in a choir energises people which in turn improves and promotes our communication and aids general health and wellbeing. These choral techniques build teamwork, community, self confidence and vocal projection ending in a choral performance with a lot of fun and laughter on the way. Not only does being in a choir energise people it improves and promotes communication and as I have found, can work as therapy in the formation of self help groups with NHS cancer patients, dementia and those recovering from mental health conditions."

"I believe we are all about the journey not the destination . Everyone can contribute. Everyone has a voice. It’s not all about singing but supporting each other with positivity and enthusiasm while learning new vocal skills on the way."

The Bernie Whelan Choir at Raising The Roof 2018

Bernie has developed a very varied and enjoyable repertoire of songs from different styles and genres for her choirs.

At Raising the Roof 2018, she will lead her choir through well-known and loved songs from Abba and Beatles, amongst others.

Ellie Kerr has over 25 years’ experience of award winning business experience and throughout her career has advised in some of the largest organisations with strategic entrepreneurial equality, diversity and inclusion expansion projects. 

Through her coaching business, Ellie Kerr Coaching, she loves empowering women and watching them grow.  Particularly when they are struggling to re-establish their identity after children, before returning to the workplace, or gaining the confidence to start or grow their own business by helping them to recognise and own their strengths and skills. 

Ellie uses her knowledge of traditional employment in the private, public and self-employment sector to deliver life enhancing skills training and workshops, in her own unique way, she brings both truth, humour and tonnes of practical advice in abundance.

She is Co-Founder of Merseyside Women of the Year Awards, now in its 10th year. It is the largest event to celebrate women’s achievements on Merseyside and raises thousands for Charity each year.

Ellue is Mum and taxi service to her 15 year old son, Brodie.

M : 07966 308 405

E : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

T : @ellieekerr

Grant Logan – Founder, Disability Today

 

 

On a sunny morning, September 2003 my life took a dramatic change of direction, which would alter the way I lived from then on. 

I was working in the music business as a manager of artists and songwriters, working with them on all aspects of their careers. A busy life but I really enjoyed it. Then my life changed… I had gone to Exeter with a couple of friends on a weekend motorbike trip and on the way back I had an accident I have no recollection of. Apparently, the bike skidded on some gravel on a sharp corner and I ended up in a farmer’s field, waking up two days later to find family and friends gathered around my hospital bed. I was pretty battered, high on morphine for the pain and through the haze of it all it, discovered that I had crushed my spine and I would never walk again. 

It was a grueling few months with various operations and rehabilitation, but one thing stuck with me while in hospital - I have this vivid memory of a nurse coming and telling me that one-day I would realise I was one of the lucky ones! I wouldn’t understand what she meant until later on. I was discharged just before Christmas 2003 and started on the road back to independence. I had to master again the simplest of tasks that most people take for granted, I went back to work almost immediately, and it became clear quickly that my type of work was going to be quite challenging in a wheelchair. I had travelled with my artists taking them to shows and events as well as accompanying them to press and TV shows, but I soon realised it had actually become more difficult getting me in and out of a building than them! 

In the following months as I started the journey of accepting the new normal in my life things took a turn again and I came down with the hospital superbug MRSA. In some ways I think this had more of a detrimental effect on me than the accident as I became very ill and eventually had to have all the reconstructive metalwork removed from my back. It was down to my friends and family getting me through this tough time. Everyone rallied and I worked hard at staying positive. During this time, I started asking more questions about disability, and without realising my research had started into something that was going to help reshape my life.

There are some fantastic organisations out there with some wonderful people helping the disabled community to help rebuild shattered lives, so I started to reach out to many of them. 

My first experience was a multi-activity course in the Lake District.  I remember vividly the first morning sitting outside the B&B with about ten other wheelchair users when the organisers turned to the tallest mountain in view and said, “We’re going to climb that today!”  The feeling of sitting on top of that mountain and having the realisation that I could still achieve my dreams was a very powerful emotion. One that made me realise that I could still have a life.That was in 2005 and in 2006 I went skiing to Colorado with The Back Up Trust and six other wheelchair users. Returning from Colorado, this was when the first of my ideas for building a website for the disabled came about.

My first venture was a website called The Wheel Life, the first social network for wheelchair users.  This was before Facebook, and we connected chair users from all around the world and gave them a platform to express themselves on.  It also worked very well for me on a personal level by putting me in the centre of the disabled community. This meant that people, charities and organisations would contact me about events and ask me to help spread their message.  

After engaging with professionals, organisations and other wheel chair users I soon realised though there just wasn’t enough information readily available to the disabled community. It has got better but you really have to research things, it certainly wasn’t easy. So after hearing one too many wheelchair users say “I wish I had known about that” I decided to start Disability Today primarily to help give everyone the opportunity to access the information they need but often miss out on.

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to be involved in some incredible adventures.  From climbing Ben Nevis for Capability Scotland, pulling a jumbo jet along the runway with other wheelchair users to break a world record, to flying, gliding, micro-lighting, rally driving, quad biking, clay pigeon shooting, water skiing and even getting back on a motorcycle and racing round Castle Combe at over a 100 miles an hour!  I have also become a trustee of The White Lodge Centre, a charity that’s been going for 55 years, supporting children and adults with severe disabilities.

As well as the charitable side a few years ago I got involved with a research project looking at the advancement of exoskeletons for the paralysed, and I’m participating in an on going study in to the effects of osteoporosis and the drugs being developed to hold it back. I’m a test case but it seems to be working.  My scans reveal that after 13 years in a wheelchair, my bone density is still the same as an able bodied man my age.  This is obviously great news for me and others living with paralysis. It’s been a serious rollercoaster ride so far, with definitely some ups and downs but I really do know... “I am one of the lucky ones!"

Robert Winstanley, Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Up The Creative Space Seminar 2018, is an ex-international tennis player turned youth worker who helps the next generation to become the best of themselves.

He specialises in inclusion.…”I look to remove barriers that an individual may have to face in order for them to live a fulfilled life. I started a life coaching company to use my vast skill set in supporting people to radically change their lives and views on the world.”

Napua Davoy - Playwright/ Composer/ Lyricist/ Pianist/ Vocalist/ Actor

Napua Davoy is carving herself a stylistic niche for theatre and film in her first five productions STELLA RISING, FLY ME TO MIAMI, PENTHOUSE, THE TICKET and CELIA.

With a lifetime in classical and jazz music, advanced degrees in foreign language, literature & history, she moves deftly through dialogue, lyrics and music creating suspenseful, moving, important and entertaining pieces for stage and film.

Davoy won The Lila Khan Award for the Pan-Asian Repertory Theatre production of her one-woman musical STELLA RISING.

Backstage reviewed the piece stating:

Napua Davoy is an exquisitely expressive singer with an enormous range, plays a sensuous piano and has written glorious original music, an eloquent score and a moving and relevant story for stage.

Originally from Beaumont, Texas Davoy resides in New York and Paris striving to create work which will truly make a difference in a world that appears at times to be going absolutely haywire.

bravecoolworld.com

 

Napua and Raising The Roof 2018

Napua is a woman extraordinaire  who has written a muscial about another courageous and strong woman - Celia. We are fortunate to have her perform at Raising The Roof 2018 her single from this musical - "We Can Change The World"

 

What the critics say:

“Napua Davoy is one of the most extraordinary song stylists in today’s jazz world. She is a unique and beautiful performer and is destined for stardom.” — George Wein

“A hard swinging pianist and singer with deeper roots in Miles Davis than Hildegarde, with considerable keyboard chops and charm to spare, not to mention a trio that really gets behind her.” —Will Friedwald, Village Voice

“Singing original songs that have the shape and feel of familiar standards, Davoy reveals a strong, sultry and sensuous voice that at times recalls the emotional expressiveness and musical spontaneity of the late Sarah Vaughn.” —The San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Until We Meet Again’ is the perfect marriage of material and artist, a match made in jazz heaven.” —Town & Village, New York City

“From the first note of her full-bodied, sultry voice, it was clear that this is an important singer. On top of that, she is a swinging piano player!” —The Resident, New York City

“Davoy navigates lush harmonies and wends her way down beautiful melodies dancin’ and groovin’ all the way.” —Town & Village, New York City