APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN (DEADLINE: 25 OCTOBER) FOR OUR SWAP'RA RETREAT 2025. LEARN MORE AND APPLY HERE
SWAP'ra COACHING CRECHE
Supporting Mothers and Fathers...
What is the SWAP'ra Coaching Crèche?
One of our first ideas when we launched SWAP'ra was to set up a regular SWAP'ra Coaching Crèche, holding two days of coaching per month at a suitable venue where parents of preschoolers could hone their craft without having to worry about the enormous financial stress of finding childcare and coaching fees whilst getting back in to performance work. The scheme is open to all professional classical singers or student singers at a UK conservatoire, male and female, accompanied by a maximum of two pre-school children per singer.
The premise is that you attend coaching in groups of three for three hour sessions, you bring your preschool child or children and the other singers watch the children in a separate room, set up to be a fun and safe environment while you have your coaching session.
We are offering subsidised coaching with top vocal and repertoire coaches at different venues each month. Click the link below to read the criteria and sign up:
Would you like to help?
Hosting a SWAP'ra Coaching Crèche
If you are keen to support opera parents and would like to get involved in what SWAP’ra is doing, this would be a wonderful way in which to do so. Ideally we’ll need a music room with a piano and a separate room where the other parents can sit, and the children can play.
The first session would be 10.30-13.30, the second session 14.30-17.30, and if possible we’d like to hold it over two consecutive days per month to maximise the number of beneficiaries. We would like to launch Coaching Crèche in London to start with, but eventually we’d love to roll this out to other parts of the UK too.
SWAP'ra Coaching Crèche hosts will have priority on the otherwise first-come-first-served coaching places list when the session is held at their house.
Ideally, you’d be hosting no more than 3 times per year, but you could choose how many days and when. We’d offer you expenses to cover use of facilities. Please fill in the google form below if you are interested in volunteering for this.