Education
Born in Japan as Susan Elizabeth Watts, she attended Street Paul"s Girls" School before reading music at King"s College London where she studied piano and singing.
Born in Japan as Susan Elizabeth Watts, she attended Street Paul"s Girls" School before reading music at King"s College London where she studied piano and singing.
She lived in Mexico and the Philippines, and then spent 12 years in Hong Kong where she had a television series as well as radio broadcasting, teaching and performing. In 1990 she was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship, which she used to travel and study in Finland, Hungary, Canada and the United States of America, focusing on methods of choral training and music education. She also trained with Péter Erdei, Head of Choral Studies at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.
In 1993 she founded a national music education charity The Voices Foundation whose methodology is based on that of Hungarian music educator Zoltán Kodály.
The same year, Yehudi Menuhin appointed her to spearhead the United Kingdom branch of his MUS-East project The Voices Foundation Children"s Choir, a multi-ethnic choir comprising children from throughout the United Kingdom, has performed at State occasions including the VE Day Head of State ceremony and the first National Holocaust Memorial Day and has toured in Europe.
Ms Digby currently serves as one of the Foundation"s 20 advisory teachers and is in charge of its education project in primary schools. From 1996 to 1998, Ms Digby was musical director of Rosslyn Hill Chapel Choir, and from 1998-2000 director of the Middlesex Bach Choir.
In 1998 she launched "Singing Schools", a 5-year programme in South Africa involving 70 schools in Soweto and Johannesburg.
More than two hundred African children"s songs have been collected and integrated into the United Kingdom programme. That same year she was shortlisted for a Creative Britain Award. She also founded and directed the award-winning London-based adult chamber choir, Coro.
In 2003 she founded Voce.
She was founding musical director of the infant programme of the Finchley Children"s Music Group and co-founded Music Box, the Bristol based children"s opera group. She is also a conductor and has performed in the Royal Albert Hall, Street John"s, Smith Square, Street James"s Church, Piccadilly and the Royal College of Music.
Abroad, she is guest conductor of Saint Stephen"s Oratorio Choir, Budapest. She has been a judge for the Coleraine Music Festival in Northern Ireland and Sainsbury"s Choir of the Year.
Mississippi Digby is Chief Executive Officer of arts.works (wwwartsworksukcom), a company that delivers corporate workshops for clients ranging from Sainsbury"s to Household Bank, with an emphasis on team building, active listening, and confident communication.
She has also worked regularly with radio and television in the United Kingdom and has presented for British Broadcasting Corporation Wales television including British Broadcasting Corporation Cardiff Singer of the World competition. In 2008 she acted as a judge on the British Broadcasting Corporation show Last Choir Standing. In November 2011, Vocal Futures staged a performance of the Street Matthew Passion at Ambika P3, conducted by Mississippi
In 2000 Mississippi Digby was invited to become a council member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust where she serves as Chairman of the Arts category.
