Voice of an angel, heart of a lion.Jane, Findhorn International Community, Scotland
About
I am Carol Prior and I’ve been working in the Performing Arts all my life, during which time I’ve had a number of overlapping careers as an Actress, Singer, Choir Leader, Teacher, Mentor, but above all I’m a Performer.
My greatest passion is for the human voice whether in it’s simple unadorned beauty, or in glorious multi-layered harmony, and singing is at the heart of everything I do. As a Singer I am drawn to songs which have a story to tell and I have a rich repertoire which spans many genres and cultures. I am also a Songwriter and have recorded 2 albums: Spirit Of The Wind and Sweet Precious Time which feature songs I have collected, favourite covers and my own compositions.
Spirit Of The Wind is the product of that period of my life when I discovered the joys of a cappella singing and it inspired me to set up Vocadonna, a women’s choir in Brighton in 1998. Moving to Hastings in 2001, I set up 2 further choirs – Shore Sounds the town’s first community choir and the Robertsbridge Community Choir, also the first choir of its kind in the area. At this time I was also teaching a cappella singing to children and young people in schools across Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and Surrey for the acclaimed Rhythmix music education project.
Sweet Precious Time has been described as a great calling card with my heartfelt singing taking listeners on an emotional roller-coaster between laughter and tears: a little bit folksy, a little bit bluesy, a dash of country, a touch of gospel, a hint of jazz and a helping of humour.
As an Actress I have performed widely in fringe and repertory theatre, alternative cabaret and television, culminating in Waiting For The Green Light, part of a ground breaking TV series called 1 in 5 for Channel 4 in 1986 about the lives of lesbians and gay men. In this programme I sang 6 specially commissioned songs, performed sketches and a stand up routine and played the saxophone. Between 2006 and 2009 I appeared at Sappho Garden of the Arts, Eressos on the Greek island of Lesbos performing in my own one woman show Prim, Improper and in her Prime as well as the legendary Tripping The Velvet Variety Show which took place in and around the International Women’s Festival held every year in September.
More recently I appeared at the Hastings Fringe Festival in September 2017 in my one woman show Give Me The Moonlight, Give Me The Girl which is a musical celebration of one woman’s love, lust and longing for other women.
Blog
Beatles Day April 5th 2020
Beatles Day is still going ahead, it’ll just be a live streaming event instead. You can catch my performance at about 4.30pm today on Isolation Station Hastings Facebook page. See you later! (“Imagine there’s no virus, do be do be do…”).
Performing at Posh Club this Friday February 28th 2020
I’m really looking forward to performing at the Posh Club in Hastings this Friday 28th February. I’m on at 1pm but the whole event takes place between 12 and 3pm. The Posh Club is a glamorous performance and social club for older people in 5 locations across London and the South East and Hastings is …
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Singing at Hastings Herring Fair
I’m really looking forward to singing at Hastings Herring Fair this Saturday November 23rd 2019 taking place at 1.30pm on the Stade open space in the Old Town (next to the fishing boats and Hastings Contemporary). I’ll be singing songs that tell extraordinary stories about ordinary/extraordinary women, including my own compositions. It’s free to get …