Dawn Walters is a mezzo-soprano and composer working and living in East Yorkshire, England. She shares how composing and performing art song builds community. She did this through participation in the Leeds Lieder Festival in addition to being a teaching artist with the Maritime Primary Outreach Program. We also chit-chat about what it's like to return to school as an older student and some of the challenges we've faced as moms trying to build music careers.

Topics in this episode include:

• Leeds Lieder Festival
• How poets, composers, and performers can collaborate to bring attention to important topics
• Maritime Primary Outreach teaching artist
• How to think about expanding a small project into something much larger
• Serving underprivileged communities
• Serving an organization by customizing a project to match its mission
• Why children need access to music and other arts
• Going back to school as an older student
• The need for consistency & resilience, plodding on and keeping your nose to the grindstone

An alto soloist and small ensemble singer, Dawn Walters currently performs with Robert Hollingworth's The 24, as well as singing weekly services as part of a professional quartet in the York Oratory, and as an Alto Lay Clerk with Sheffield Cathedral Choir. She is an awarded and published choral composer who also sets Shakespeare songs and sonnets, which have been performed across the UK and in Europe, and broadcast on BBC radio. Dawn is also a deputy lay clerkfor several cathedrals, including York Minster and Bradford Cathedral, and performs with vocal ensemble Allegoria.

You can find Dawn at: dawnwalters.wordpress.com