Voice work
As I briefly describe on the homepage of this website, working with the human voice has long been, well, something of a calling for me! Of course helping people to free and even recover their voices is very meaningful so voice work is close to my heart.
In the course of my professional activities as a singer, teacher and Rolfer® I have met many people with voice problems.
An injury is not always the decisive factor (actually in the rarest cases), but incorrect vocal straining or tension in the head and neck, neck, jaw, base of the tongue, in the respiratory muscles or problems in posture are far more often implicated in quality-of-voice loses.
It is also not uncommon for severe voice strain to follow immediately after laryngitis or infections where compensatory phonation patterns have become established. In the case of all voice problems, my first advice is always toward a medical assessment by a specialist, with follow up manual therapy where appropriate.
Whatever the cause, it is important to know that in many cases manual work (the term "laryngeal manipulation" is often used in English) can help to relieve tension and "free" the voice again. Here, too, I use the approach from Rolfing® with a combination of manual techniques and perception training.
​My approach can bring decisive improvements for:
- Endurance problems; frequent and/or rapid vocal fatigue
- Lack of volume or "penetrating power" in speaking or singing voice
- Range problems experienced by singers
- Restoring colours (timbre) to a one-dimensional sound in speakers and singers
- Stiff or absent vibrato
- Hardened tongue base (the famous vocal "dumpling" or "knotted" throat)
- Pressed or squeezed phonation
- Muscular dysphonia
- A permanent tightness in the throat
- High breath
- Lack of self-confidence
- Lack of grounding when on stage or a speaker podium, etc.
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I try to think as multidisciplinary as possible in my work and am always open to working collaboratively with ENT doctors, speech therapists, singing teachers, movement therapists and people who can contribute knowledge from other areas.
If necessary, I can also offer singing lessons in classical singing myself. I have taught singing peripatetically at the Royal Academy of Music in London and also in private with studios in Oxford and Vienna. My students and clients include international concert and opera singers performing at houses such as ROH Covent Garden London, Stuttgart State Opera, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and Lisbon Opera and many of my private students have been awarded places and scholarships at major music universities. If you are interested in classical singing lessons or in combination with voice work as described above, please contact me here .