Meet The Leaders

Lesley Singleton Musical Director	Gail Grainger Assistant Musical Director	Lyn Baines Chorus Manager	Anthea Prentice Chorus Manager

Lesley Singleton (Musical Director)

Lesley started studying music at the age of 4 and over the proceeding years learnt to play the piano, flute, trumpet and guitar.  Gifted vocally, she has sung with many choirs, including a madrigal group which toured Paris in 1987.

She received professional voice training over a period of 7 years, during which, she competed in many local music festivals.  Her specialties were unaccompanied folk singing and Early English music for which she won a number of trophies.  She went to college in London to study music in 1997 where she focused on singing, improvisation and writing musical harmony.

Lesley joined the Spangles in October 2005, having never sung Barbershop music before.  In January she was asked to "try out" as MD for the Chorus.  This has been a learning curve for us all but her experience with vocal technique has brought the chorus on in leaps and bounds and she is taking direction from Lyn and Anthea regarding the intricacies of Barbershop! 

Since Lesley became MD, the chorus has grown from 5 to 30 so she must be getting something right.  Her unorthodox hand gestures while conducting often have us in stitches!

Gail Grainger (Assistant Musical Director)

Gail has been involved in barbershop singing for about 17 years initially with Mountain Harmony in North Wales and then when she moved to Yorkshire becoming a member of the 11 times National champions 'The White Rosettes', a 60 strong chorus, before moving to Spain in June 2004 and singing with 'The Velvetones' in Torrevieja. When 'The Spangles' had their singing course in the spring of 2007 she had a day off work to come along to give her support and tell the group what it was like to be part of a big chorus. She enjoyed the experience so much that as soon as she could she changed her working schedule so she could come and join 'The Spangles'. Gail has now taken onthe role of Assistant Musical Director bringing her valued expertise to the group.

Gail comes from a true Barbershop family. Her daughter Zoe has also been singing barbershop since the age of 15 and her husband Charles was the Chairman of the 'White Rose Barbershop Singers' initiating the amalgamation of two smaller barbershop groups, which now sing as 'The Big County Chorus' in Yorkshire.

Gail and Charles were married in New Orleans when they attended the SPEBQSA convention there in 1992. They were delighted to have all their barbershop friends with them when they tied the knot. Gail works here in Spain as a reflexologist and also teaches in a craft shop but is passionate about her music and not only sings with 'The Spangles' and 'The Velvetones' but also sings in a ladies quartet and a mixed octet.

Lyn Baines (Chorus Manager)

Lyn joined Wessex Harmony in 1994 and was soon hooked by Barbershop.  She became actively involved in the club as Secretary and Fundraiser.  Anthea joined a few years later and she and Lyn have been friends ever since.

Lyn's working life has been within the IT industry since 1978 in sales and marketing.  She ran her own marketing company between 1994 and 2002, where Anthea joined her as Telemarketing Manager and together they caused chaos with staff and clients alike, working hard but having lots of fun along the way.

When Lyn and her husband retired to Spain, Anthea and her husband swiftly followed the same dream and all landed in the Murcia region. One sunny afternoon, at a barbecue with friends, one of whom was a barbershopper, they all sang in four part harmony and both Anthea and Lyn realised just how much they missed singing. That's when the spangle of an idea began……

Within Spangles Lyn is responsible for Public Relations, Costume & Makeup and is Baritone Section Leader.  She is also a Chorus Manager and takes an active role in the strategic and musical planning of the chorus.

Anthea Prentice (Chorus Manager)

A highly trained singing friend originally dragged  Anthea along to a Barbershop Chorus back  in the 1980s.  The reason this happened was that Anthea had a deep melodic voice, ideally suited to the bass section of a Barbershop chorus.  What the said friend wasn't aware of was that Anthea, although she loved singing, hated Barbershop.  However, as the weeks progressed she found she loved singing harmony, and Barbershop was an ideal place for her so she joined Brunel Harmony (based in Saltash, in Cornwall) with whom she competed in the Annual Barbershop Competition, known to Barbershoppers as "Convention"

Betwixt all this Anthea has been very involved with Dance and Theatre, taking dance classes from the tender age of 5 through to 11 and then rediscovering dance at 20 odd through to 30 something.  She has also acted with Sterts Theatre Company at their amphitheatre in the middle of Bodmin Moor for 10 years, and included tours of France with Shakespeare's " A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Franglais

In 1998 Anthea moved to Poole in Dorset and knew one way to make new friends - Cue for a song?" - She joined Wessex Corn Dollies - later to become Wessex Harmony Chorus - where she met up with Lyn Baines, and subsequently became firm friends.  Such firm friends that she ended up working for Lyn, as her Telephone Marketing Manager. 

Lyn then moved to Spain, and Anthea's intention was to go out and help them move in and then go home; however, she then caught the "Move to Spain" bug.  Six months later they moved to Spain and 9 months later she and Lyn started talking about singing.  The two of them then went on a recce to Torrevieja to hear "The Velvetones" and, although they loved what they did, were aware that they were 1 hour away, and they started rehearsing at 10.30 in the morning.  Anthea has said many times she cannot speak at that time in the morning, let alone sing!  However, the visit made them gird their loins and they subsequently advertised in lots of local newspapers to see if there were any fellow Barbershoppers around.  The result?  Having cajoled friends and relatives, they found a much-needed baritone to join them.  So Spangles started with 4 friends and an acquaintance.

The Spangles is growing from strength to strength and new members appear on a regular basis (all are very welcome!).  None of this would have been possible without teamwork, the love of singing Barbershop and the will to enjoy what we are doing.

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