Meet Our Students: Lorraine Worley

Lorraine Worley is a retired opera singer and recitalist who has been teaching for over 50 years. She currently teaches at Bristol Cathedral Choir School and Backwell Academy, in addition to running her own private practice from home (online or live). 

Originally trained as a chorister, Lorraine has trained festival choirs, winning many competitions and two commendations from the BBC Choir of the Year. At 64 years old, she decided to resume vocal pedagogy studies, in the pursuit of answers to questions about innate musical aptitude and how it can be exploited and applied in practice at a deeper level of vocal exploration to the mechanics. She completed her PGCert in Applied Professional Practice followed by her MA in Voice Pedagogy.

Lorraine described the course as “rigorous and challenging” and says it has changed the way she views the world in general. Completing her MA has resulted in much more success with her students, getting them into top conservatoires where they excel in examinations. It has also enabled her to engage in “much higher levels of voice-related discussions” and talk to top pedagogues who she respects.

Lorraine is committed to continuing her professional development and has enjoyed Voice Study Centre short courses such as those on acoustics by Ken Bozeman. Towards the end of 2023, she also passed the Certificate in Applied Neuroscience and Voice with Heidi Moss Erickson, with the course’s 'top-down' approach fulfilling many answers to her quest for knowledge of the shared genetic musical aptitude of humans, songbirds and other ‘vocal learners', and how these findings could be applied to vocal pedagogy. “By far the best course I have ever done. I feel I’ve really learned something and I’ve got so many t-shirts in my singing drawer but this one was truly fresh, inspiring and innovative. What’s more, it all makes total sense and I speak from many years of seeking and trying out various methods, teachers and ideas both on myself and my students”, she noted.

Lorraine says that a combination of the MA and the neuroscience course has “unlocked a whole new world of intellectual and practical insights into the world of singing and within the general field of related interests” which she wouldn’t have otherwise found. Since studying with Heidi Moss Erickson, she recommends the book The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling and the Making of Cultures by Antonio Damasio (2018).

At the time of writing, Lorraine is running a local choir, delivering choral workshops and hosting more consultation lessons which offer more targeted advice. While her private practice and school teaching is currently successful, she might like to step into university singing teaching one day.

Find out more about Lorraine at: https://www.florencelorraineworley.co.uk/