Choir leader Tanya Walker thought her singer-songwriter days were behind her, until a competition took her to Abbey Road
Tanya Walker has dedicated her life to encouraging others to sing. The 51-year-old mum leads five community choirs.
“It’s all about health and wellbeing, connections and friendship,” Tanya says of the singing sessions she organises in churches and theatres around her home in Brecon, north Wales.
“There are quite a few older people in the choirs, and it’s a lifeline for them. We’ve also had people suffering from mental health issues and it’s transformed their lives.”
Aside from bringing people together to sing, Tanya has also spent more than 20 years working as an arts development officer for her local council, helping young people into creative industries.
This autumn, however, she finally got the chance to fulfil an almost forgotten musical dream of her own.
As global winner of Talent Is Timeless – a songwriting competition for over-50s – she was chosen from 3,000 hopefuls to receive a record contract and the chance to record a song at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios in London.
It wasn’t her first time in a studio. Having played piano from the age of six, Tanya landed her first record deal when she was 27. But as a younger woman, she lacked the confidence to pursue the opportunities she was given.
“I was quite an insecure person around being seen,” the choir leader reflects.
“If there was a hall full of people and one person said something negative, I would listen to the negative comment.”
After marrying and having her daughter, Lola (now 14), Tanya trained as a natural voice practitioner and began leading choirs – two of which combined forces this summer to sing for King Charles and Queen Camilla during a royal visit to Brecon.
It was a well-received performance.
“First Minister Mark Drakeford came up and told us what a wonderful sound we had all created!” Tanya reports.
Busy nurturing the voices of others, she had put her career as a singer-songwriter on the back burner, believing that the music industry was only interested in youth.
“Someone said to me when I was 25, ‘You’d better make it before you lose your looks’,” Tanya remembers. “Things like that stuck with me and lessened my confidence.”
One of her staunchest fans, however, was Ge
