Here’s a quick update… on what I’ve been up to. After quite a long absence from the concert platform, it’s been fun to get going again with concerts in Town Church St Helier and a forthcoming performance of Handel’s Messiah in Guernsey.  It’s funny how much my voice has changed over the last few years into a much more lyrical instrument, and I’m thoroughly enjoying performing items from the operatic repertoire.  My current favourite is Rusalka’s Song to the Moon… wonderful to sing!  It was surprising to me just how nerve-wracking I found the concert at Town Church, with the fabulous Edward Picton-Turberville.  I had to deploy ALL of the tactics that I teach others around Performance Anxiety as my whole being went into fight, flight, freeze mode half an hour before the concert!  It helps me to understand what my students are going through though.  Another thing helping me understand my students is my swimming.  Taking swimming lessons, and studying a new motor skill myself, really helps me understand what it’s like for my students learning new ways with a motor skill in the ways they use the voice.  I’m struck by how we can only focus on one idea at a time.  Note to self… DO LESS and don’t try to fix everything at once in your students!  (Actually, maybe don’t try to fix as much at all, but that’s for another blog!)

I’m loving teaching at Somerville College in Oxford, as well as at Pro Voice Care in London.   These trips are fabulous for keeping me in touch with my gorgeous 18-30 students, many of whom came on our Jersey Retreat last year.  (Just making plans for the next one so watch my social media pages!)  Finally, I’ve been continuing my Vocal Rehabilitation studies, and attending voice clinics in UK, which has been incredibly illuminating.   Understanding disordered voices better, not just in singers and speakers, but in the general population, adds a great deal to my understanding of the cocktail of factors that can cause the voice to let us down.  It’s often a multitude of contributing factors, not just one thing, and I’m enjoying putting some of my manual therapy skills and other skills from this advanced training course to practice.