Introducing Tosin 

Tosin is a vocal director and music entrepreneur, also a vocalist, teacher and singer-songwriter. She directs several choirs across Manchester, and runs her own gospel collective as well, Voices Beyond. She performs widely, including at weddings and corporate events, and also writes music, both individually and with Voices Beyond. 

Writing Gospel and African Praise 

Tosin’s first interest in music grew from Gospel music, in combination with traditional Nigerian songs she heard at home, where she grew up in eastern Manchester. In her work with choirs she combines the two strands of (American) Gospel and African Praise music, mixing the sounds. This core repertoire, and the Christian faith that underlies it, informs her song-writing. 

”I suppose as maybe a Christian point of view, I see my song writing as a way of kind of expressing my faith. So, um, maybe if there's something I feel like maybe God is saying to me, or something that I feel that God wants me to write about, um, I kind of use it as a, as a way of kind of expressing that. So, a lot of times I might, maybe read my Bible and stuff … I'll have it like praying. I can write it down and it, it kind of goes from there. And I'll maybe turn that into a song. Sometimes I just hear like a lot of melodies or I hear lyrics and I'll write that down. So it it's a very, um, it's not a very linear process.” 

Tosin leads song-writing workshops in a more structured way, working with non-Christians as well as Christians, and basing the work around a theme. 

”I kind of try and set annual writing days. So we'll come together, um, sort of as a Christian, some of us are non-Christians and we'll come together and we'll write, we'll come up with a theme and we'll, um, either write together as a collective or we'll break, break off into smaller groups. Depending on how it goes, we might get two or three songs. And then it's just about kind of, um, finishing those songs and then refining them and getting them ready to perform or record. We've had some sessions where we all just worked together and we'll come up with maybe one song per session. And then it's down to myself and my musical director, we will then take the song and literally kind of chop it up, arrange it, come up with the harmonies, come up with really just, just kind of polish it and finish it off. Then we go into the process of either recording it or getting it performed, um, personnel so we can perform it in our shows." 

In 2018 Voices Beyond was commissioned by the Manchester Jazz Festival, within a project called the Hot House Project, to support upcoming artists with their writing. Alongside creating a legal framework for the collective as Community Interest Company, this is the direction Tosin would like to develop, because through commissions and corporate events, she can feed money back into the work she is doing. 

”They commissioned us to write some new music and then we were able to perform it, like industry professionals. We want to do more, more work like that, but it's not easy when you work with such a large collective because you have six singers, four people in the band... it's quite a big collective. A lot of these projects want to focus on solo artists or just a standard band, maybe like, you know, one singer and four musicians." 

Growing through and beyond the Nigerian Yoruba community 

Tosin studied Drama and Screen Studies at the University of Liverpool, but continued singing and writing alongside her course, and decided to focus on music after that. She had grown up in a family with a lot of singing at home and in church, and feels part of a community of Yoruba people in Manchester through her large extended family. Tosin’s father moved from Nigeria to Leeds in order to go to university, and then settled in the UK to work. Tosin herself has only been to Nigeria once, but she can understand the Yoruba language. 

“My parents love the music, they played a lot of Yoruba music. And then I went to a Nigerian church probably from the age of like 10, until when I went to university. So, like age like 18, 19, we would sing songs in Yoruba. So that's, that really helped me too, even though I can't speak [Yoruba], I can, I can sing it. Um, so that really helped, especially with my understanding of the language. Um, so... we'd have to sing from, it would be something like a, a hymn book, but it was in Yoruba. I'd say every Sunday and I’d be singing Yoruba songs.” 

In her work, Tosin engages with many different communities, not just the Nigerian or African ones, and recognises this opportunity as one of the great strengths of Manchester. 

“So like my choir, I would say is made up of a mix of people, mix of different races, different ethnicities. Um, I think at the beginning, when I first started teaching them, it was mainly made of like white, white people. But then the mix has got… it's got more of a mix now, I'd say. When I was doing work for Amani Creatives, that was mainly kind of African immigrants based in the, uh, North of Manchester, Moston. You come across such so many different types of people. It's just such a mix of, of people and, um, different things. And yeah, I think in terms of the music scene, it's got so much to offer so many talented people that, and I'm looking to work with. Um, so yeah, I love, being a part of Manchester and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Like I know a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you used to go down to London if you want to make it big time there’, but I'm very much about trying to get things going here.” 

Having grown up in Gorton, Tosin went to school there and in the South of the Manchester, but has lived in many parts of the city. In comparison with Liverpool, where she studied, Manchester may be fractionally less friendly, but Tosin finds it much more diverse. 

”Manchester it's such a, I don't know how to explain Manchester. It's just a place where you just, I can't leave because it's, I feel like it's, you know, I have a very strong identity of it being my home, even though obviously I know that I am of Nigerian descent, but I think like much that I feel out of it as a place that can call home. And, um, I love the fact that there's such different cultures, different ethnicities, different types of people.” 

Singing to belong 

Tosin choir and workshop participants have spontaneously shared the ways in which singing with her has made them feel. 

”The feedback that people have given to me through my years of teaching … especially with my university choir is that it's, um, a sense of belonging. A lot of people feel that they have found a sense of belonging. Especially the work actually I did with Amani Creatives, they feel like they belong to something it's like, um, maybe a feeling of self-worth. It helps them to combat feelings of loneliness. I've had a lot of university students come to me and say that the highlight of the university experience hasn't actually been the course it has been being a part of the choir. To hear people say things like that is really lovely. I never really realised it had that effect on people, but it has.” 

Tosin also has a strong appreciation of how good her work makes her feel, because it is a shared experience of bringing voices together. 

”There is something about vocally singing together and being a part of something. It just feels like it's like very, a very magical experience I'd say. I feel as something that you can't quite put into words that happens when you sing with people. Um, it is a very, like a transformative thing that happens. Um, so, you know, loads of different kinds of benefits from just, I suppose, musically hearing some beautiful music, but, you know, sense of belonging, sense of feeling like a part of something, um, yeah. Loads of different benefits, but I'd say those are the main goals, the main, main ones." 

"And I definitely, as a director and as a teacher, I get benefits from teaching. Um, there's been a lot of the times when maybe I've turned up to my rehearsal and I've just not been in the best mood or I'm not feeling too well. And by the end of the rehearsal, I'm just like, ‘Oh, this is really great’. Like, you know, that definitely gives me a sense of like, I love my job and I love what I do.”