Rose McGee

Rose McGee - Director of Brisbane City Sounds Chorus

Rose has been singing all her life, and singing a cappella harmony for over 20 years.

The McGee family still sings every time they get together. They still remember the old hymns, camp ditties and gospel songs they sang in harmony on long car trips through the Appalachian Mountains to grandma and grandpa's house in West Virginia.

But it wasn't until 1990 that Rose started taking her singing seriously. Living in Gosford, with a small baby at home, she decided it was time to get out of the house. She joined a local women's choir and life hasn't been the same since.

From Gosford, Rose moved her family to Wollongong for the love of music - just so she could take on the directorship of the Wollongong Harmony Chorus. More quartet singing followed and her quartet and chorus began climbing the ladder of national competitions.

In 2003 Rose began her association with the Gold Coast, eventually moving there in 2005.

Rose was Musical Director of national champions, The Blenders, for five years, taking them to three gold medals. She sang with and eventually became Musical Director of Harmony in Paradise and sang with medallist quartets Pitch Black and Cool Change, and founded the mixed a cappella group Cloud 8.

Rose believes that singing is better for you than psychotherapy and that singing with other people has a mysterious, mystical, even metaphysical effect on us. Singing brings people together and forms strong bonds, it helps us survive hard times and celebrate good times, it teaches us how to cooperate, how to be in harmony with others, and how to create beauty together.

There are so many songs to sing, and so little time. All kinds of music from classical to latin, popular American song, folk, world, rhythm, a cappella singing, jazz - there's not a moment to waste. Let's sing!