Claire Hewitt

There is a full spectrum of artists and leaders in our network and a place for all of us.

I also identify as someone with a disability and that gives me an excellent knowledge base of the neurodiversity experience. How we interact and connect with our audience after working in disability/mental health and aged care for the last 12 years.

You can read more about it at my website www.creativespark.nz

I have focused Song Leading work on rounds and fort part songs, improv play, storytelling songs and inclusivity and always making invitations for participation.

The principal value of my work is Creative Engagement. I personally love to unleash the voice, improv, blues and gospel.

Claire and her bag of explorative instruments travels all over the place on her scooter. To wellbeing workshops, music discovery, storytelling and play sessions. She started to gather instruments back in 2002 in her first year as company musician at Dunedin Playback Theatre Company.

Now they seem to take over her house and come in every shape and sound. They form the joyful expression of responding to things with an instrument by making a sound to define an emotion or gesture that relates to that story or emotion communicated by the people in the room.

I came to singing with the same story many people have “your voice is to loud”, “Don’t stand near me, your putting me off”.

I had the great fortune to have been exploring what music might have been to me with Dunedin Playback Theatre Company, I was doing training in Paekakariki and I was challenged by this song we kept singing, always singing it the same way in my company. I just wanted to set my voice free, I felt limited.

It was called; I stood under an old Rimu Tree. Bev Hosking our trainer invited me to sing it how I wanted, she then invited as many of our group members that wanted to stand with me in solidarity as I found my voice.

I broke free of the old story and liberated myself.

After that Bev said, next week before you leave Wellington I want to introduce you to Julian Raphael at this concert on Saturday. The rest was a perfectly aligned history of trusting the process and being in the right place at the right time.

I was first introduced to song leading through Wellington Community Choir and Song Leaders Network Aotearoa. Through trust it has given me time to develop my individual unique voice as a Song Leader and now I am representing a voice on the committee for the solo practitioners, the small business owners, entrepreneurs, for social singing and contract group singing leaders who are often self-employed.

I have been a member of Song Leaders Network Aotearoa since 2015.

Creating music and movement at Churton leigh

Read more in my article here: Churton Leigh Movement for Activating Alertness and Connection

Community Music Sessions for creating social change.

Communications Role

You will have noticed my name floating around the place on emails and in the newsletter for a good while now.

I am here to help support you as a community to add your communications to the website and to make sure information gets passed on the the right person.

I also document and collate content for you. I built the website and we are in process building a membership area for you.

Hi, if you want or need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to songleadersnetwork.aotearoa@gmail.com

I am happy to help with anything. Check out our newsletter archive for our most recent information, our Connect with Song Leaders Page , Events and BuyLeadin page.