My mother, Ann Neate, who has died aged 95, was an acclaimed soprano, psychotherapist and editor.
As a professional singer Ann found success as a soloist and also with the group Intimate Opera. She performed around the world, on the BBC, including with the English Chamber Orchestra, and at the Royal Albert Hall.
Born in Farnborough, Kent, Ann was the eldest of three daughters of Jack Dowdall, an advertising executive, and Gladys (nee Baker). As a young child Ann showed great promise in ballet and won a scholarship to the Cone Ripman (later Arts Educational) ballet school.
When she was 10, after the death of her mother, the dancing stopped, but years later, in 1947, Ann won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music as a pianist. Her professors soon realised she was blessed with an extraordinary voice and thus she switched courses.
In the late 1950s Ann met Tony Neate, who worked for Shell but had a great interest in the psychic world. Together they helped form a group called the Atlanteans, a philosophical society founded from the teachings of a “spirit guide”, Helio-Arcanophus. They married in 1960 and Ann gave up her career to raise their two children, Semira and me.
In 1981 Ann and Tony moved to Runnings Park in Malvern with three other families to create a centre for personal development. There she was a driving force and co-founder of courses and workshops within the various schools based at the centre, including the College of Healing, of which she was founder and co-principal for 10 years with David Smallbone.
She also helped set up and run the Esoteric School and contributed to the Wrekin Trust, an educational charity concerned with the spiritual nature of humanity and the universe, and edited magazines produced by the centre.
At the same time she ran her own psychotherapy practice, gave lectures and workshops with Tony around the world, and was a founder of Buttercup Connections, a group set up to explore further ideas in relation to health and ecology. She continued working into her 80s, helping to transform lives.
Tony died in 2018, and Semira in 2022. I survive her, as do her grandsons, Declan and Patrick.
