About me

Violinist, Speaker and Life Coach

After teaching music in secondary schools for well over 30 years I have taken early retirement to spend my time raising money for charities. I am passionate about music and alleviating world poverty. By giving violin recitals in my local area and giving my fee to charities working in the developing world I can join my love of music and my desire to help people who are struggling to buy the basics in life. As a Global Citizen and a Tearfund speaker I also give talks about world poverty. In addition I am completing my Life Coaching training in a desire to help people make their lives the very best they can be.

MUSIC Background

My parents bought me a recorder for Christmas when I was five and then chose the violin for me when I was 8, probably because they were tired of hearing me play the recorder! Despite not being co-ordinated enough to dance or catch a ball I liked playing the violin, if not practising.

As a teenager I enjoyed maths and sciences at school. I was fortunate enough to be in the Junior Philharmonic orchestras, including the newly founded Chamber Orchestra under the direction of the then very young Andrew Penny and, after playing the Vaughan William’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis one New Year, I decided that I could not give music up. I went to Lancaster University to do a BMus honours degree and also took, and passed, an ARCM diploma in violin teaching in my final year.

I was keen to pass on my love of music so, after a PGCE year at Bretton Hall, I taught music in secondary schools for over 30 years before taking early retirement in 2019. I was Head of Department at Beverley Grammar School for Boys for 20 years then, after 3 years working part time and doing charity work, I found myself at Hymers College as Director of Music there – a job that somehow found me!

During all of this time I have continued to play my violin regularly in and around Hull. I play in the orchestras that accompany Hull Bach Choir and East Riding County Choir and I lead the Hull Choral Union Orchestra. I play solo recitals, in churches mainly, whenever I am invited.

My violin is a Duke made in 1756 in London, it is worth a lot more than my car, but then you haven’t seen my car!

Having married in 2018 and moved to Hutton Cranswick in 2019, I have been cycling around the beautiful countryside and discovering lots of beautiful churches in the surrounding villages. It is my aim to play my violin in every one of them!

Church and World Poverty

My parents took me to the local Methodist church when I was three and I loved the singing. I also enjoyed the teaching, taking part in the church’s music festivals and being a Brownie! I certainly think it helped me develop a social conscience and although I left after ten years I then went through a phase of going to lots of different churches with whichever of my school friends invited me. Although I did not settle at any of them, I was further influenced by the Christian teachings. In my late 20s a friend took me to play in a service at St. Mary’s  Church in Cottingham (Church  of England) and I discovered a whole genre of music that I adored. I joined the choir and was confirmed there shortly after. It was around this time that I read the book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and this sparked my interest in World Poverty and my desire to be a part of the movement to eradicate it. Since then I have been involved in many different projects, some for large organisations like Fairtrade, Christian Aid, Traidcraft, The Global Poverty Project and Tearfund. I also support smaller charities like Water Works (who build wells in Malawi) and SEAT in Swanland, who sponsor two schools in Nairobi.

When I was 49 I went part time for a year to focus on the issue of World Poverty. I devised my own scheme to raise both awareness and money. I also incorporated getting fit as I was always the kid in the class who, in PE lessons, no-one wanted in their team! I scored 1 rounder in my whole school career! My 5050 Project was 50 weeks long, resulted in me swimming, cycling and walking a lot and raising over £5k for wells and toilets in Malawi. I wrote a blog every week about my activities. Some were very serious and some were funny, like getting lost on my bike a few miles from home and coping with swimmers who splash about and do not swim in a straight line!  

https://louiseturner5050.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/sunday-2nd-november-one-year-on/

I am writing this life summary as we ease out of lockdown and I still cannot get over the fact that the world has virtually stopped, (and so it should) to save us from a virus that thus far has no cure but I cannot get over the fact that over 20,000 people in the developing world die every day from hunger and easily preventable diseases. We know what to do, and how to do it, but we are taking our time about it. This situation upsets and frustrates me.

I love being a Tearfund speaker as I get to visit a wide variety of churches and talk to people who care about the poorest people in the world who need our help. Having said that I have not spoken to anyone about this problem who does not care; how could we not?

Life Coaching (Goal setting, Decision making, Prioritising, Motivation, and more!)

As a teacher I have done a lot of coaching over the years but my interest in Life Coaching came about when I was fortunate enough to attend a two-day workshop with The Coaching Academy in Leeds. It was after this weekend that I made the decision to really get involved in charity work and loads of opportunities to work with great organisations opened up (see Church and World Poverty section). I signed up for the diploma course and did a lot of work for that but I didn’t quite complete it as I had to work with 6 people for 6 sessions each and everyone who I coached was sorted after 3 sessions! This is what the famous coach Rich Litvin now calls ‘deep coaching’ so I am relieved to be able to give my method a name!

I am now in the final stage of completing the diploma and I want to work with groups as well as individuals. My workshops will enable many more people to access the skills that can, and very often do, change people’s lives for the better. If you belong to a group that might be interested in this please do contact me. A sixth-form group for example would benefit hugely from such a workshop.