“ I’m passionate about music, the community, and what the combination of these offer to our lives, health and wellbeing, especially within the LGBTQ+ community. After several years working within the music education system, theatres, stage management, production, and theatre education, I’m really excited to connect these dots producing and delivering quality creative health and wellbeing projects.”
”Music can make the difference between withdrawal and awareness, between isolation and interaction, between chronic pain and comfort — between demoralization and dignity.”
– Barbara Crowe
(Past President of National Association for Music Therapy)
Current roles and projects:
Festival Co-Director for Hand in Hand Uk and Ireland festival
I’m proud to be taking on the role of Festival Co-Director for the Hand in Hand UK & Ireland LGBTQ+ Choir Festival – a biannual celebration bringing together community choirs from across the nations. The festival is a bold, joyful gathering rooted in equality, acceptance and creative expression. Every two years it showcases the power of collective singing to build connection, challenge stigma and lift voices that too often go unheard.
The next festival is coming to Blackpool – a deliberate and exciting choice. It will bring high-quality arts to the town while directly supporting the local economy, aligning closely with Blackpool Council’s cultural strategy. We’ll make full use of the town’s extraordinary heritage buildings and open doors for residents to experience and take part in the arts. Singing for Creative Health will be a core theme, highlighting how choirs contribute to wellbeing, belonging and resilience. As Co-Director, my role spans artistic vision, partnership building, programming and community engagement – ensuring the festival isn’t just an event, but a legacy. In leading this work, I’m building on the values of Electric Pink Voices: serving Blackpool through creativity, inclusion and opportunity, and offering a weekend the world desperately needs – full of pride, participation and joy.
Musical Director of Electric Pink Voices
With generous initial support from Manchester’s ‘The Sunday Boys’ through artistic director Michael Betteridge, Phill leads the ‘Electric Pink Voices’ Blackpool’s LGBTQ+ choir. This group offers a safe space, free from prejudice, where members can express themselves creatively through music, with some exciting creative projects and performances in the pipeline. Our first commissioned piece ‘Love by the sea’ was co-produced with our members and recorded at the The Old Electric in Blackpool. After several pop up performances at Blackpool Pride and a growing partnership with Blackpool Central Library, we based a joint project around the book ‘This Monk Wears Heels’. We’re excited for our upcoming performances at Blackpool Pride and back by popular demand ‘A night of Xmas Cabaret’ at The Old Electric.
Artistic Director of Connect Community Groups CIC
Aside from his freelance career as musical director and creative producer, Phill is currently Artistic Director of Connect Community CIC that he manages alongside Director Jayne Kelly.
Connect Community Groups offers a high quality arts programme, through choirs bringing people of all ages and abilities together to be part of a creative and caring community where everyone is welcome and everyone’s voice is valued.
Within our regular sessions, workshops and seasonal events we focus on upskilling participants, through music and creative activities in a safe, supportive space, free from prejudice, that offers a sense of belonging, grows members’ confidence and self-esteem, and raises aspirations.
“I appreciate your time and effort, Phill and Jayne are brilliant and I cannot thank them enough for how much they have helped me with my mental health and bringing me out of my shell. They are wonderful.” V, Member of Connect Community Programme
Throughout the year, we also partner with local and national organisations, offering unique collaborative opportunities and experiences. In July 2023, for example, we partnered with esteemed arts organisation Bodies In Flight with over forty of our members participating in the Life Class Workshop exploring the theme of relationships through poetic text, music and choreography. The workshop was free, all activities were fully accessible to meet people’s different needs and a wonderfully creative time was had by all!
“I loved the workshop – the actor was inspirational, I loved how the square tango could be done standing up or sitting down and we weren’t bad at the songwriting at the end either, which was a revelation!”W, Group workshop member
We aim to benefit the community by:
- Connecting members of the community, giving participants a ‘sense of belonging’ especially members feeling isolated, lonely or excluded in any way, by providing artistic opportunities for people to express themselves creatively in a safe environment
- Creating a support network through the arts for members who want to boost their wellbeing and/or are experiencing loneliness, grief, physical and mental health conditions
- Removing the barrier of commercial pricing which can exclude people on low incomes, as our activities are free, donations welcomed or with a small charge
- Building confidence and self-esteem and providing opportunities for members to share their work in performance or exhibition spaces
Previous roles – Creative Learning Producer
Over the last seven years, Phill has been working as the ‘Creative Learning and Development Producer’ at Blackpool Grand Theatre, with the core aims of developing create arts and health projects within the community. Another key role was to support the development of ‘Story Led-Resilience’ as a trained resilience practitioner, producing and delivering a three year arts and wellbeing programme, supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. The programme connected the town wide resilience revolution to the stories being told on the Grand Theatre’s Stage. Within this role Phill also produced the Grand Young Company through the National Theatre Connections Programme, musically directed the Grand Community Chorus, and continued to connect and build upon local and national partnerships supporting the funding for the Grand Theatre through Arts Council England
Local Musical Director – RSC – Julius Caesar
Working in partnership with the RSC over the past few years, Phill recently took on the role of Local Musical Director, bringing together several leading members of the Blackpool community for rehearsals to join the RSC cast and perform in the 2023 production of Julius Caesar.
Previous Roles – Stage Manger at Chickenshed Theatre Co
Prior to the work in his hometown and across the North West over the past several years, Phill’s passion for wellbeing and inclusivity in the arts accelerated when he worked within the stage management team at the London based Chickenshed Theatre Co. Here he was surrounded by a large team of people whose mission and value were to create a theatre company for absolutely everybody. He loved being part of their culture to make bold and beautiful work from their limitless belief in each other. Through their productions, training, educational courses and outreach projects, their mission continues to be one of creating wonder out of chaos and change out of challenge.
Phill Fairhurst 