Debbie Winter

Debbie Winter (LLB Hons, MA) lectured in Law and sang professionally on the jazz scene before deciding to change careers and become a vocal coach. She noticed a lack of high-quality training provision and certification opportunities, which led to the development of Voice Study Centre. Debbie worked in partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University and leading pedagogues to develop a unique training pathway in Professional Practice and Vocal Pedagogy. She has recently established a second MA in Performance Coaching and is currently creating content with leading specialists. UWTSD has recognised Voice Study Centre to be a Centre of Excellence.

Since the MA began, Debbie has mentored and examined the Postgraduate students through the pathway. She is the academic lead responsible for recruiting the lecturing staff, designing and modifying the syllabus, lecturing in qualitative research methods, and managing the student projects. Debbie was also nominated for the Student-Led Teaching Fellowship awards for her outstanding work on the programme at Cardiff Metropolitan University and is the only external provider to receive such recognition. The programme was also shortlisted for the Music Teacher Awards for Excellence ‘Outstanding Music Educational Product’ in 2019.

Debbie has also, recently established the popular, rapidly growing Facebook group Voice Geek, which consists of 4.7k members. This popular discussion forum shares and discusses new research involving the voice. The Voice Geek conferences have enabled new researchers to present alongside leading pedagogues. The Voice Geek Conference ran successfully online during the first Pandemic Lockdown, generating £3,000 in aid of Help Musicians.

Publications

Sole Author:

Practitioner Research Methodology

Winter, D. (2020) ‘Voicing a Practitioner Research Methodology: Further Framing the Conversation’, Voice and Speech Review, 14(1), pp. 45-60.

Winter, D. (2022) ‘Exploring the Narrative: Voice Practitioner Research and the Literature Review Process’, Voice and Speech Review, 16(2), pp. 123-138

Joint Authorship

Performance Coaching:

Paul, A.E., Juncos, D.G. and Winter, D. (2024) ‘Acceptance and Commitment Coaching for Music Performance Anxiety in Adolescent Singers’, Frontiers in Psychology, 15, pp. 1-15.

Shaw, T.A., Juncos, D.G. and Winter, D. (2020) ‘Piloting a New Model for Treating Music Performance Anxiety: Training a Singing Teacher to Use Acceptance and Commitment Coaching With a Student’, Frontiers in Psychology, 11, pp. 1-12.

Mahony, S.E., Juncos, D.G. and Winter, D. (2022) ‘Acceptance and Commitment Coaching for Music Performance Anxiety: Piloting a 6-Week Group Course With Undergraduate Dance and Musical Theatre Students’, Frontiers in Psychology, 13, pp. 1-14

Conference Proceedings

Kutsal, G., Winter, D., & Juncos, D. (2024) 'Acoustic spectrogram for evaluating the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) as a music performance anxiety management method in professional singers', Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, Vol. 46, Pt. 2

Online Learning:

In Press:

Flynn, A., Price, K., and Winter D (2025) ‘Online Teaching of Voice Pedagogy’ in Welch, G.F., Howard, D.M. and Nix, J. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Singing. Oxford: Oxford University Press