Eleanor Forbes

Born in Scotland, Eleanor Forbes completed an honours degree in German Studies at Aberdeen University. Alongside her studies she gained her ARCM performance diploma before going on to the Royal College of Music in London. She also took part in masterclasses and courses given by John Carol Case, Elisabeth Grümmer, Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk and Gérard Souzay. Her performing career spanned opera, oratorio, song recitals and chamber music, with a large and wide-ranging repertoire. Based in Germany since the mid 1980s, she has dedicated herself to teaching healthy vocal technique, both privately and at university and conservatoire level, and this has involved working with jazz, pop and musical theatre singers as well as classical performers and actors. Many of her students have developed successful careers as established performers and teachers.  

A former board member of the German Voice Teachers’ Association (2014-2018), and currently on the board of the European Voice Teachers Association (EVTA), she is also a qualified teacher (EMT) of Estill Voice Training. Eleanor holds an honorary professorship from the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin, where she taught a class in vocal technique in the Jazz Institute Berlin from 1996-2023.  She also taught vocal technique and vocal pedagogy classes at the University of Music in Dresden from 2007-2019 and was a vocal tutor at Stage Entertainment’s Joop van den Ende Academy in Hamburg from 2011-2016. She has presented at conferences in Germany and abroad, given workshops and masterclasses in German conservatoires and is in demand as vocal coach to experienced professional singers, due to her extensive knowledge of healthy vocal function.

In addition, she is an experienced translator of vocal pedagogy publications (German-English), e.g. for Breitkopf & Härtel (OperAria series, The 7 Basic Elements of Voice Training).