Stephen Taberner is a singer, songwriter, double bass player, composer and choirleader based in the Blue Mountains, best known as the musical director of the Spooky Men's Chorale.
Stephen was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1961 where he explored the dual realms of part singing and existential angst at his parent’s Christadelphian Church. At 21, he took up the double bass purely by accident (his brother needed one to be babysat) and began playing in local jazz bands. Two years in London which were largely spent at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club was followed soon after by a move to Sydney to study at the Conservatorium jazz school in 1989. Stephen played with various Sydney jazz artists before his musical career took an unexpected turn when he joined world music singing group Voices from the Vacant Lot in 1991.
As well as traveling to festivals and learning songs from Bulgarians, Georgians, South Africans and Tanzanians, he discovered a love for teaching singing which led to the establishment of his first community choir in 1993. In 1996 and 1998 Stephen was co-director of the Choral Sea, a singing event at Sydney’s Town Hall with over 700 participants. Stephen also became a highly sought choir and workshop leader, facilitating workshops throughout Australasia. He worked as musician for Sydney Playback Theatre from 1995 to 2000, and also with an East Timorese cultural group in Cabramatta over a similar period. These two experiences led to him composing the music for the NZ made documentary “Punitive Damage”, the soundtrack of which was nominated for a Nokia NZ film award in 1999.
In 2000, his career took a sudden new direction when he successfully unblocked himself and began writing songs. He presented his debut concert “This was nearly my life” at Eastside Parish in 2001, and spent much of 2002 recording his first solo CD “Burning Slow” at BJB studios in Surry Hills.
A spell in the Blue Mountains resulted in the formation of the Spooky Men’s Chorale, a long held dream of Stephen’s to create a boofy, highly tuneful and gratuitously foolish male singing ensemble. In the meantime, he continued to lead Sydney choirs, notably “Another Roadside Attraction” who appeared several times on TV. Other notable teaching commitments in this period include the choirs at Woodford and Canberra folk festivals, Summersong music camp (Lennox Head), Rhythmsong (WA, 3 times), and regular workshops throughout NZ, including the inaugural Acapella Aoteoroa (2003).
2004 saw a move to Melbourne to take up a position as musical director of the Millennium Chorus, an annual singing event at the Concert Hall with a choir of 350. He directed "Rongo" in 2004 and "Azadi" in 2005. Stephen also took over two Melbourne choirs, and began directing a new male ensemble "Men in Suits", a choir of urban commandos who commentate on the pathology of the man in the suit. He also guested as singing bass player with Chambermade Opera in "Phobia" in Hungary and the Netherlands and The Spaghetti Western Orchestra with "The Session" at the Malthouse Theatre. For several years he also ran the celebrated mega-choir Bigmouth.
Meanwhile, The Spooky Men's Chorale had found a trajectory which took up much of Stephen’s time, creativity and 4am musings. As at March 2023, they have performed more than 800 gigs to a total audience of more than 335,000, recorded seven CDs, appeared at all the WOMADs, folk festivals, and grand theatres that you can think of, and toured the UK and Europe 10 times. What was originally going to be a small, fun project to support his own CD launch has now (and this is a source of delight rather than annoyance) become, effectively, his life’s musical work.
Several other strands of creative endeavour have become important in Stephen’s work. One is his ongoing commitment to singing teaching, with half a dozen large singing weekends every year, including Wintersong with Rachel Hore. Another is his pioneering work with protest songs, particularly climate songs with “The ministry of common sense” and XR. He has also been very active in supporting the Ukrainian cause via several “Sing for Ukraine” events, and Julian Assange, via a song commissioned by Julian’s dad, “Like a Movie”.
During the pandemic, “The Massive Singlet” was a major focus, with up to 500 people turning up to regular singing sessions on zoom, and Stephen also taking up the chance to teach harmony, rhythm, ukelele and arranging to keen housebound punters. Returning to live gigs since then has offered an opportunity for him to return to an an old but underexplored area: all the songs that he’s written but has barely had the chance to perform. The trio “Sofa of Fools” has now become the main focus for these songs.
It’s also worth mentioning that the constant need for inspiration has been a hugely important theme. Stephen has, amongst other people, studied Songwriting with Kristina Olsen, Clown with Eric du Bont (Belgium) and Phillipe Gaulier (in Germany), voice with Jo Estill (Canada), Nadine Manion (Sydney), Meredith Monk (New York) and Linda Wise (Paris), Circle Songs with Bobby McFerrin, and Takitina with Reinhardt Flatischler. All of this has fed into his current body of work.
Best known now as choirleader and spookmeister, Stephen nevertheless finds time to perform his own songs solo and with help from his friends. He now has a needlessly ecelctic pedigree as jazz double bass player, choirboy, playback theatre musician, world music junkie, clown, bathroom harmonics afficianado, singer/songwriter, and student of the human condition, and brings as much of this to all of his work as humanly possible.