Helen Lyle
Helen leads the Body of Sound Choir and has taught WEA classes at Heeley, Oughtibridge and Parson Cross.  She has an outstanding reputation.  She has a huge repertoire and has taught us some wonderful songs including some Doo Wop harmonies.

Helen is very supportive of Purple Cats.  We recognise that there is a shortage of Natural Voice style teachers in Sheffield.  Helen is mentoring some Purple Cats with the aim of them being able to lead the choir in the future.  So be prepared for some new teachers soon.  Purple Cats not only provides a warm supportive environment for its singers but also for novice teachers too!

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Kate Thomas
Kate teaches a weekly WEA class, "Confidence Through Singing", in Parson Cross and the occasional one-off workshop. She also sings with Body of Sound, a women's singing group in Sheffield

Janet Wood
Janet is a singer/songwriter and workshop leader with experience of working with a wide variety of clients of all ages and abilities. She has even written a song especially for Purple Cats, in four-part harmony, which has gone down a treat!

Trish Taylor
Trish teaches two weekly WEA classes, "Sing Your Heart Out", in Heeley and “Women’s Harmony Singing” in Oughtibridge. She sings with Body of Sound, and a women’s ‘doo-wop’ group which is so new they still haven’t got a name.

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Guillermo Rozenthuler
Guillermo and Purple Cats were made for each other.  Guillermo was an instant hit when he came along to our first day workshop with Nick Prater.  You could read about him and be impressed.  Even better come along and experience a Guillermo choir-leading masterclass firsthand.

An accomplished singer, instrumentalist and vocal coach who worked professionally for 10 years in Buenos Aires, Guillermo is now based in the UK, performing as a solo artist and in various projects spanning Latin- American folk traditions with jazz, tango and Brazilian music.  He teaches vocal technique and leads workshops for musicians on South American genres.

Approach: Since 1992, he has helped shape a generation of professional singers.  His approach to teaching combines voice training based on body awareness with Latin-American/Brazilian/Jazz repertoire, emphasising musical and aural skills for improvisation and performance skills.

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Simon Banda
Simon is lead vocalist, choreographer and composer for Sunduza.  Simon has taught us songs from Africa and likes to include some simple (low energy!) dance movements too!  The following extracts are from the Sunduza website.
"Sunduza in Ndebele means 'let us push'.  They come from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.  Sunduza have been pushing their beautiful scintillating harmonies, percussive rhythms and high energy dances internationally."
"Harmony and voice: School and community based choirs will benefit greatly from the wonderful voice workshops led by Simon Banda whose skill in teaching polyphony can rarely be matched.  Simon's own voice has an extraordinary range and you will be making a sound you previously thought impossible."

Simon has been hugely popular and we look forward to having him back to lead some sessions or a day workshop.

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Mentees
The Mentoring Group was set up in the summer of 2001 with the aim of developing new teachers for Purple Cats. Since then any Cats who felt they would like to teach songs but lacked the know-how or the confidence have met once a month to be mentored by Helen Lyle. The project has had success in that both Kate Thomas and Trish Taylor are members who are now doing paid work as singing teachers, and many others have taught songs at Cats and beyond.

When you see ‘Mentees’ listed in our calendar, rather than a named teacher, this is an evening where members of the group teach the songs which they’ve been preparing during the term. It’s always a varied and interesting evening where your support and encouragement is very welcome.

The Mentoring Group would like to extend an invitation to any Cats who would like to join us at our monthly meetings, whether as a regular member or as someone who has a favourite song they’d like to teach (at Purple Cats or elsewhere) but would like a little guidance and support. Please talk to Helen, Adam, Jill, Kate, Trish or Zoe if you think this might be for you.

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