AN online search of Euan Tait’s name yields dozens of recordings of his work, especially his collaborations with Norwegian composer Kim Andre Arnesen.

There are church choirs, high school choirs, college choirs, obscure choirs, famous choirs. There are British choirs, European choirs, choirs in the Far East and, most numerous of all, choirs in the US, where his words have been sung from California to Washington State and countless points in between.

The chances are that at any given time, somebody, somewhere, is performing or rehearsing the words of this New College lecturer whose work focuses on all that is best about the human spirit.

In the autumn, some of those words will be sung at the Royal Academy of Music in London as part of an international choral conductor course.

Euan comes across as both humbled and delighted by these successes.

“It’s hugely, hugely moving. That’s what you hope for, you really do. What it does is make you realise that you’re doing your job as an artist because you’re helping people to sing what’s in their hearts.

“What any artist wants is to help people to find a way to speak for their deepest emotions.

“That’s the artist’s job - to help people find a way to speak for things that are in their hearts.”

Something else that delights him is the ongoing surge in popularity enjoyed by choral singing.

“I think it’s on the rise. I think it really is. Occasionally you see choral music in programmes like The Voice or Britain’s Got Talent.

“It’s people wishing to belong to something and achieve something together. I think that’s very, very powerful. People want to belong.

“Singing is something so basic to being human. People used to sing at work but the industrial age and machines cut that out. People are rediscovering it.

“They think, ‘It’s not done by an elite, it’s done by ordinary people - you and me - and it expresses things that we feel.’ They then think: ‘I’m good at this, and it’s something I can do for life.’”

Euan’s heritage is Welsh and Scottish. He was born in Berlin, the son of a Scottish soldier and a Nairobi-born teacher and book editor.

The holder of a degree in English language and literature from Hull University and an MA in creative writing from Manchester Metropolitan University, he has spent most of his career in one form of education or another.

He first came to Swindon in 2001 to work on a council project supporting clients with learning difficulties in employment, and soon came to love the town.

Euan came to New College in 2014, having trained as a teacher in Cardiff.

“I have adored Swindon for years. I just see amazing people over and over again. It’s a great place.”

He has been writing poetry since childhood, and his influences include Dylan Thomas, RS Thomas, Seamus Heaney and any number of Victorian authors of verse sagas.

Euan draws parallels between teaching and writing, trying through both to reach people and encourage them to speak out for themselves.

He is moved by positive feedback from people who have heard or read words he has written, and also by kind words from people he teaches.

“You get an adult learner who maybe has had very little confidence, and says, ‘You have helped me because I was frightened of going back to college.’ Or you get a teenager who says that. It’s when you get somebody who says, ‘You really, really helped me to express what I was feeling.’

“You can’t put a price on that.”