About Debbie
Coming from a musical career, Debbie began storytelling after having her first child, Stanley. When Stan started school and experienced racist remarks, Debbie turned to her close friend, the renowned storyteller Jan Blake, who introduced her to a rich collection of Afro-Caribbean stories and encouraged her to begin storytelling in schools. Witnessing the powerful impact these stories had on children, Debbie discovered the transformative power of storytelling and a new creative path began.
As her family grew, so did her creative work. Inspired by her own children, Debbie began writing original songs and musical stories, teaching herself music production and collaborating with musicians and producers. She has since built an extensive catalogue of original material, alongside delivering storytelling sessions, creative workshops, music videos, and animation projects.
Debbie loves working with children and families in creative ways, continually inspired by the honesty, imagination, and boundless creativity that children share so freely.
Performing with Matty Skylab at Camp Bestival
It has been one of Debbie's greatest joys to be introduced to Oren Marshall, world renowned Tuba player and multi-instrumentalist, who runs 'Jazz for Toddlers' classes for families with babies and young children in the community. Debbie joined forces and added her storytelling to the mix, the classes were hugely successful, and led to them producing an album 'Belly of the Whale' which was full of the stories and songs shared in these classes.
Classes in the Community
Books
Inspired to create children's books and create animations based on the character from her musical stories and songs, Debbie asked her father Peter Sanders, a retired commercial artists, to start working with her on developing the songs characters such as Jazz Cat, Teddy Bear and many more.
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Performing
Debbie still enjoys performing with various artists including her brother Mark Sanders's outfit Staggerlee Wonders. Alongside Mark, she has also performed with Saxophonist and composer Rachael Musson at Cheltenham Jazz Festival the for radio 3's Jazz Now, and at Cafe Oto, on Rachael's composition 'I went This Way'.
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