I have a fascination for the human voice and vocal communication, whether it’s singing, speaking or voice pedagogy - exploring voice is central to my practice and research. Singing and writing songs has been an intrinsic part of my life since childhood. I initially trained in classical singing, and then studying for a BA in Performance Arts at Middlesex University explored many other musical genres, before going on to record and release music with different bands. These experiences led to explorations in sound recording and electronic music, which in turn led to working in radio alongside composing. Now I have established vocal practice, as a singer, public speaker and occasional radio presenter and I work intimately with the voices and stories of others producing narrative audio.
My research into voice and self is informed by these experiences and developed in tandem with a deeper exploration of voice pedagogy, specifically the psychophysical approaches of Roy Hart Voice and the Linklater method, I benefited greatly from learning practically with Kristin Linklater in-person in Orkney over several years, studying her writing and her approach to freeing the natural voice has also been a significant part of my academic research. These psychophysical practices have given me the opportunity to deepen my relationship with my voice revealing greater expressive capacity and range. I am passionate about helping others to do the same, through research, consultancy and using my expertise in facilitating conversation, collaboration and deep listening.
Voice, creativity and identity is an area of special interest. As part of my PhD research I explored voice as a pluralistic entity within my own practice, this encompassed composer voice, authorial voice and physical voice. Working with the musicality of vocal communication is significant to my practice and researcher. I am inspired by the work of Psychobiologist Colwyn Trevarthen, who I interviewed when making the BBC World Service documentary The Language of Lullabies, and writing the accompanying article The Universal Language of Lullabies for the BBC News Website. I’ve included further explorations of his work into communicative musicality in my PhD thesis in relation to working with the musicality of the spoken word in compositional work.
I have shared voice research teaching radio and media at Bournemouth University where I am currently a visiting fellow; I have given workshops on sound, voice and listening at The Slade School of Fine Art (UCL May 2018); I gave a paper entitled 'Voice and self and the relational journey between speaking and singing' at the Finding a Voice Conference at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (July 2019), and delivered a presentation entitled ‘Voice Fear and the sonic environment’ at the singing and mental health MARCH sandpit at Snape Maltings (Jan 2020).