Valerie Housden

Valerie Housden sings Soprano, alto, tenor as required, accompanist (guitar & drum), conductor, arranger, provider of rehearsal venue, lunch, tea and coffee.

Valerie grew up singing: solo, or with younger siblings or in various school and/or church choirs. She started playing the guitar at the age of fourteen, was briefly in a band with her then boyfriend and eventually graduated to doing solo floor spots at folk clubs until Real Life ™ got in the way. She went to her first SF convention in 1981 and finally found the filkroom in 1986. She hasn't looked back since…

She was on the concom for the first, second and sixth British filkcons, was GoH at Decadence, the tenth British filkcon, in 1997, and Fan GoH at Sferacon, the Croatian National SF con, in 2000. As well as guitar, she plays banjo, various recorders, and she can shake or bash things with the best. She also plays in the band, Cosmic Trifle (with Zander Nyrond and Chris O'Shea), which was GoH at FilkCONtinental in 2004. She represents one third of the KMV Chorale, the other two being nMC-ers Kate and Marion. Her solo album "Lady in Veils" was released in 1990. Two of her songs have won British Filk Awards/Sams: "Catsblood" won the Best Serious Song Award in 1991, and "Following in Valentina's Footsteps" won the Filk Gold Sam in 2000. In 2004 she was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame.

She sings soprano (currently), alto (preferably) or tenor as required, provides guitar or percussion accompaniment where wanted, has done a number of the arrangements, and occasionally conducts. She also provides lunch for the choir.