Brenda joined Heartbeat over six years ago and throughout this time she has been a steadfast member – a regular and reliable attender, always “on it” with her vocals and expressive visuals and choreography. With her beautiful musicality and wonderfully rich bass voice she has been an integral part of the chorus’ renowned bass section and a key contributor to its success. She is also sings with Mayhem quartet who competed in 2013 and 2015.
Brenda has had a long and illustrious career in barbershop, having begun over 20 years ago with Crystal Chords and spending several years with multi-award winning Cheshire Chord Company. Her passion for the genre also led her to membership with the highly successful LABBS (Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers) quartet Lipsync. She has been, and still is, a fantastic role model to her daughter Suzanne, who also sings with Heartbeat and was the lead in Domino quartet. Her husband Terry sings with BABS (British Association of Barbershop Singers) champions Cottontown Chorus.
Brenda has been a determined and resourceful leader of the dress team. Her tenure saw her having to source not only the new walkout gear, but also a new stage outfit. In the end, she designed the beautiful blue outfits herself, which received critical acclaim at their first outing at the Sage. Brenda’s creativity manifests itself not only in her musical ability but also her professional hairdressing skills, which are highly valued in the chorus.
Putting others before herself is typical of Brenda. She is positive, calm in a crisis, kind, warm, funny, modest and unassuming to a fault, quietly going about her business. All these attributes have come sharply into focus this last year, which has seen Brenda battling a serious illness which was diagnosed just before convention last year. Being the trooper she is, Brenda chose to defer starting much needed treatment until after convention and took to the stage with none the wiser.
2016 has been a very difficult year for Brenda but her singing has helped her through it – she rarely missed a rehearsal as it helps her maintain some sense of normality and gains strength from the friendship and support of her friends and fellow chorus members.