Optimal Breathing for Singers

Dr. Jenevora Williams is a leading exponent in the field of vocal health and singing teaching. After a successful career in Opera, Jenevora turned her attention to investigating healthy and efficient vocal function. The combination of academic study and practical experience has resulted in a unique perception for understanding the human voice. She was the first singing teacher to be awarded a PhD in voice science in the UK, and won the 2010 BVA Van Lawrence Prize for her outstanding contribution to voice research. Her book, Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults, has been enormously popular with singing teachers throughout the world. She is well-known for her imaginative and rigorous training courses for singing teachers in the UK, the US and Europe. As a teacher of singing, she works with professional singers of all ages, as well as training teachers in rehabilitation for Vocal Health Education and BAPAM.

Jenna Brown is a freelance mezzo-soprano, vocal coach and music educator based in the UK. A former choral scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, she continues to work as a choral singer and soloist, as well as providing vocal health aware choral coaching and singing teaching. Jenna is recognised for her work with adults and children with additional needs and holds an MSc in Teaching and Learning from Oxford University, where she researched Special Educational Needs.

As a qualified teacher, Jenna has worked with several UK Universities as professional tutor for trainee teachers and continues to provide consultancy on music education, including as director of Education and Outreach for the Fitzhardinge Consort, and music leader at Bristol Beacon, where she supports the continued professional development of tutors. Combining her interests in voice pedagogy and teacher education, she has a developing research portfolio with particular interest in music psychology.

Paul Whittaker was born Deaf in 1964. After gaining a music degree from Wadham College, Oxford, and a Post-graduate diploma from the RNCM he founded “Music and the Deaf,” which he ran for 27 years. Since 2015 he has worked freelance, promoting music and deafness and encouraging access and inclusion.

Paul has worked as a theatre, opera and concert interpreter since 1992, with The Sixteen, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia and Opera North, and led projects across Europe with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
During lockdown he has created many BSL resources and worked with the Stay at Home Choir, Oxford Bach Soloists, NYCGB Alumni and NYCOS.

Elizabeth is an experienced singing teacher with a portfolio of work built up over the last thirty years. Her teaching encompasses many genres of performance arts including opera, music theatre, community dance and singing for health and well-being projects.

She has completed an MA (distinction) specialising in singing for health for Parkinson’s sufferers. Her research papers have been presented at the British Voice Association, Society for Music Education in Ireland, Parkinson UK conferences.

Elizabeth’s community projects place creativity and social connection at the heart of classes. Groups have performed at an eclectic variety of venues from Stormont, Northern Ireland to ‘Big Sing’ Events in Co. Wexford.

Elizabeth is resident director for the Children’s Opera Chorus and outreach education for the Wexford International Opera Festival. Currently, she is in collaboration with Dublin based composer Andrew Synott, creating a children’s opera for the 2022 Wexford Opera Season.

Katie Teage is an Educator, Choir conductor, Composer, Arranger and Soprano with the London Vocal Project. Katie studied a BA in Music at Middlesex university (2005), a MMus in Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2008) and a MA in Music Education at the Institute of Education (University College London) (2014). Katie is also a qualified teacher (QTS 2010).

Katie’s 15 years’ experience in primary education and work as an Assistant Headteacher puts her in high demand as an educator. Katie is a musicianship teacher and workshop leader at the Royal College of Music, works for schools in London as Primary Music Specialist, and a Choral and Musicianship leader for The Voices Foundation.

Dr Caitlin Shaughnessy is a researcher at the Royal College of Music and at the University of Roehampton, focusing on the importance of the arts for promoting wellbeing, care and learning. In 2021 she completed her PhD which explored the role of musical play for autistic children and their families, focusing on everyday strategies for musical development. Her other research projects have also examined the role of music for supporting wellbeing in perinatal care, self-regulation during musical learning in the early years, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, the Wellcome Trust and the Society for Music, Education and Psychology Research.

Jo Reader is a BACP accredited Counsellor and Supervisor having started a career in music teaching 25 years ago.

Alongside continuing to teach voice and piano, after a career being a classroom music teacher in a secondary school and a Young Offenders Institute, she became an Education Welfare Officer supporting families through difficult times which prevented their child from going to school. This led her to retrain and qualify as a Counsellor in 2011. She now has a private counselling practice which includes supervising other counsellors with their work.

Eleanor is a School Counsellor and a Staff Counsellor at the University of Bristol. She also has a particular interest in working with weight stigma, the Mother-Daughter relationship, young people, parents of teenagers and undertaking critical incident debriefs.