We're back!

Welcome to Season 3 of WEMC Talks - we're very excited about all that 2023 has in store.

Hello new choir members (and listeners!), we're very glad to have you here.

We kick off the new season with our Meet the Team segment focusing on all things Aryn. They are one of our original Manchester members and now Charlie's Angels, as well as quickly becoming a resident Disney expert (and pin collector).

We then catch up with original Manchester MD George Strickland about his career to date and numerous exciting projects he has on at the moment - he's on the West End right now, which is super exciting!

Lastly we chat this term's amazing repertoire in WEMC Loves and have a swift debrief about Olly and Katie's trip to see Wicked at the end of January - suffice to say, Lucie Jones made quite the impression as Elphaba.

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter @wemctalks

We hope you enjoy the show.

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Katie and Olly reflect on an eventful and enjoyable Autumn term, with contributions from choir members via WEMC Loves

We get to know new angels Chintu Bhatt and Lucy Mills with the return of Meet the Team

Then it's an update from choir member Hannah Doyle about life onboard a cruise ship as part of the entertainment and performance team

We scratch the surface of a really exciting Spring term - but more of that to come in Season 3 of WEMC Talks in the new year

We hope you have had an amazing Christmas and wish you all a very Happy New Year

We hope you enjoy the show

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Katie & Olly have an informative and enormously entertaining chat with a true Sondheim connoisseur, Tim McArthur - who is also a legend of the pantomime scene and an esteemed host of choir favourite, Overtures.

The conversation covers all things Sondheim, the arts in education, mental health and a healthy dose of festive frivolity to finish.

Released on Christmas Eve as the penultimate episode of 2022, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

We hope you enjoy the show

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In this episode, Katie and Olly were joined by the fabulously talented and entertaining Show Director of DisneyLand Paris, Emanuel Lenormand.

We discuss Emanuel's long career with Disney and some of the highlights, along with behind the scenes details that make the park the most magical place on earth.

More importantly, we discover his favourite Disney films, songs, heroes and above all, villains.

Many of our choir members will have had the opportunity to work with Emanuel and the Disney Performing Arts team already, but after listening to this, we expect many more will want to perform on one of his stages in 2023 and beyond.

No WEMC Loves this time, but Olly and Katie realise that there is a glaring omission from a previous poll that they promise to atone for.

We hope you enjoy the show

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Katie and Olly are joined by the wonderful Jennifer Tierney who is currently in the West End smash show, Come From Away.

We chat to her about her early career and journey to being in CFA, as well as going into detail about how she manages to be cover for all the female roles in the show - she is the first person to achieve this feat, which just adds to the wonderment!

Our WEMC Loves section simply had to be about Come From Away, so we find out what makes it so special for our members and how many times they have been to see it - spoiler alert, there are some super fans

Katie and Olly also have a Disney Debrief and tally up the all important number of rides that they have now been on... there is a clear winner, but good progress has been made by one of your co-hosts... finally.

If you're new to the choir and the podcast, make sure to follow us on @wemctalks on Twitter and Instagram for more updates from the podcast team.

And if you're entirely new to WEMC, than make sure to follow us on:

TikTok - @westendmusicalchoir

Instagram - @westendmusicalchoir

Twitter - @westendmchoir

If you want to try the choir out or join, please visit www.westendmusicalchoir.com or email [email protected]

We hope you enjoy the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As part of a special episode marking World Mental Health Day, Katie and Olly sit down and talk with our King's Cross MD James Cleeve about his work in music therapy. It's a thought provoking and moving discussion, so we hope you enjoy it and find it informative.

Katie and Olly recently managed to go and see Dear Evan Hansen in the West End, which they discuss with the lens of mental health - trying to avoid too many spoilers for those of you haven't seen it yet - and their passion for a genuinely special show.

Lastly, we asked you for your WEMC Loves contributions about 'how/why choir helps with your mental health', which was a lovely segment to record with lots of personal responses from our listeners.

If you would like to find out more about Music Therapy in particular, please see the below for links to the organisations James referenced in the episode:

https://www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk/about-us/

and

https://www.bamt.org/music-therapy/what-is-music-therapy

We hope you enjoy the show

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We are kicking off the 2022 Autumn term with a serious bang!

Katie and Olly are absolutely delighted to have a chat with veritable West End star Nikki Bentley!

We have a joyous chat with Nikki covering aspects of her early career, her parts in Mamma Mia and Wicked on the West End as well as other career highs - and lows - that are fascinating to hear about; along with some tips and tricks for choir members to use when getting ready to perform at shows.

We also cover some of her inspirations, role models, dream duet partners and Miscast options too - along with Disney, Queen, ABBA and Yacht Rock... as we said, it was a super fun chat!

For WEMC Loves we decided to expand the Miscast discussion we had with Nikki to see which roles our members would select, and some of their favourite examples of MCC's Miscasting videos online - we'll be sharing links to these on our Twitter channel.

If you're new to the choir and the podcast, make sure to follow us on @wemctalks on Twitter and Instagram for more updates from the podcast team.

And if you're entirely new to WEMC, than make sure to follow us on:

TikTok - @westendmusicalchoir

Instagram - @westendmusicalchoir

Twitter - @westendmchoir

If you want to try the choir out or join, please visit www.westendmusicalchoir.com or email [email protected]

We hope you enjoy the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katie and Olly are joined by long time WEMC MD James Cleeve to discuss his brand new show "Oh yes I am!" which is opening at the legendary King's Head Theatre in Islington, 11th and 12th September 2022

In this interview, we cover James' involvement with WEMC - particularly at Kings Cross and with Disney - before finding out more about his most recent project.

Even if you listen to this after the show dates, it's a great listen as James talks about the creative process involved and the fact that this is only the start of the journey for this show. We also discover James is a massive Sondheim fan, so we want to have him back on the podcast to talk about that with some other friends of the show in 2023.

We'll be posting links to tickets for WEMC members to be able to go and see the show on our new social channels - @wemctalks on Instagram and Twitter (make sure you're following us on those to keep up to date with all things podcast)

You can listen to WEMC Talks on Spotify as always, but we are excited to announce that we are now available on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, as well as Audible and web browser players - search WEMC Talks wherever you get your podcasts! (we've been waiting to be able to use that line!)

We hope you enjoy the show

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The culmination of Katie G and Maxine going rogue in Edinburgh, this second part of the special Fringe series features WEMC members Margaux and Anna discussing their favourite parts of the festival - which features some 'unforgettable' shows and drunk Shakespeare, to name but a few highlights.

Olly is left even more jealous by not being able to get to Edinburgh as Katie & Maxine flex their networking muscles by getting more of the Choir of Man cast to come and talk on the pod. Not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR of the guys joined our clearly delighted hosts for a fantastic chat in the first part of the episode.

Adam, Aled, Conor and Dave were on top form discussing a range of topics from: their earliest experiences of music/choir, troubles and prejudices they faced along the way, getting into Choir of Man, highlights from being in the cast, favourite songs as well as some wonderfully eloquent and meaningful discourse on mental health.

It was a real pleasure to hear from all our guests over this two part special, and we hope you agree.

In exciting news, we have new social media handles as the podcast is doing so well - thanks for your support!

They have gone live, so please follow @wemctalks on Twitter and Instagram for all your WEMC podcast needs

We're also very excited about being able to share the podcast on other services very soon too... so stay tuned for that and new ways to listen.

We hope you enjoy the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special Edinburgh Fringe Festival episode, Olly is left bewildered and bereft back in London while Maxine 'kidnaps' Katie G to go to the 2022 Edinburgh fringe.

They assured him it was for professional reasons (as well as a nice trip together) and let's just say that they overachieved, big time.

In this opening episode, they first meet up with WEMC veteran and ex Angel Charlie Coombes to discuss all things Fringe.

Charlie C is a veritable expert and she shares her favourite moments in Edinburgh over the years and some of her best tips and tricks to have an amazing trip to the festival - involving an Excel spreadsheet, of course.

In the second half, we are really pleased to announce a surprise guest!

Maxine and Katie G went to see Choir of Man on their first night, loved it and immediately messaged the guys about potentially coming on to the podcast.

Brilliantly, the talented and charming Daniel Len (@daniel_len_music) said YES and joined the girls for an in person chat about all things Choir of Man and his journey to the bright lights of the Edinburgh and London stages.

And if you like that... you're in luck as we have the second part of this special episode coming very soon, crammed with even more Fringe'y goodness.

We hope you enjoy the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.