Karen James has been a member of the lead section of Vocal Dimension since its very first rehearsal in January 2010 and is one of the chorus’s charter members. She has also been an active member of the finance team from the very beginning, taking on the role of finance coordinator in 2015 and has just started her second two-year term in the role.
Karen lives in Horley with her husband of 34 years, Gerry. They have two children, Amber and Nick and they also have hundreds and hundreds of honey bees! Karen works in her local school as the Business Manager. Prior to joining Vocal Dimension, Karen strutted her stuff on stage in am dram for many years with a particular talent for panto (oh yes she did!). She and her husband also ran Murder Mystery evenings with a team of their am-dram friends who acted out the roles at corporate and social events. All this experience stood her in good stead to take on the role of Barbara Shoppe with VDC!
Karen is one of those people who just quietly gets on with whatever is asked of her. She is super-efficient and effective at whatever she does and we all feel totally reassured knowing that she is in charge of our finances. When Karen takes her turn at hosting the management team meetings, she provides the most amazing cakes, often made with ingredients fresh from her garden and hence even providing one of your five a day! Who knew beetroot was so good in a chocolate cake?!
Karen is Business Manager at her local school and as well as arranging for us to sing with the children and staff, she has also provided us with free rehearsal space in the school hall on many occasions, particularly for coaching when our normal venue is unavailable. She has even attended rehearsals that she is not required to be at, just to let us into and out of the school. On top of her management team duties, Karen is perhaps best known for her starring role as the inimitable Barbara Shoppe in Vocal Dimension’s two Harmony Classic sets.
“Barbara” has reported from the all-Brit women’s Wimbledon final and also from London’s West End Theatre Awards. Karen is a consummate professional and the whole chorus feels relaxed and confident with her as our MC – she is always word perfect and bang on cue. Director, Valerie Taylor said of Karen: “We had such a lot to learn when we were putting together our first Harmony Classic set, but I never for one minute worried that Karen would not be ready or would forget her lines. She is so reliable – and fabulous to boot! – and that made all our lives so much easier.”
Karen is totally unflappable and has a calm, common sense attitude to every situation. She is a stalwart on the risers and truly deserves to be recognised for her understated but immeasurable contribution to team VDC.