This course will equip learners with knowledge of the history and development of the singing for health movement and provide up to date summaries of research to help inform future studies. You will be supported in your individual interests as well as benefit from group learning sessions and from external specialists.

We encourage students to sign up to the Singing for Health Network (SHN), which will also provide invaluable resources and opportunities to connect with other practitioners, researchers and those working in healthcare. There may be opportunities to platform your research via the SHN alongside conferences and events.Previous MA students with a specialism in Singing for Health have presented their research at the BVA, Spheres of Singing conference, for the MARCH Network, Parkinson’s UK conference and for the Centre for Child Mental Health.

Students have also had work published in peer reviewed journals, such as the Internal Journal for Community Music, and have independently published resources which are available via Amazon and Waterstones.

Research in Singing for Health has led to previous students securing support and funding from the NHS as well as charitable trusts and foundations.

You will have access to a range of video content and library material, in addition to the extensive Voice Pedagogy resources, including the following listed below.

You will be free to explore areas that suit your practice.

• Introduction to Singing for Health – history, research, policy, current landscape, including Social Prescribing
• Research overviews of key topics within Singing for Health (for example, Respiratory conditions, Postnatal Depression and Trauma & Mental Health)
• A library of research papers, covering a range of health conditions and topics within Singing for Health research

Will I be able to fit it into my working commitments and family life?

The course is designed specifically for practitioners who combine a busy working life and family life. The course is designed to study one module at a time. The deadlines are set and students work in tandem with one another. The deadlines give a generous time allocation as your working life is factored into the calculation. Our retention rate is very high with the majority of our students continuing onto the MA.

It is possible that if you have a specialist area of interest that we may be able to bring in external advisors to support your chosen subject of study. This includes high-profile and established researchers and specialists in Singing for Health.

You will also have access to a range of live short courses, which may include subjects related to Singing for Health and Well-being.

Tutorial support is pivotal to your development throughout the course. You will be offered contact via Zoom, and you can book in for sessions as you need them. We do recommend a minimum and maximum but readily provide advanced support where necessary.

It is beneficial to discuss project ideas and to re-shape projects as they progress. We also offer group sessions on Zoom to ease isolation and share ideas with other students. We try to provide these at a time that suits everyone, although time differences and work commitments may make this problematic, and for this reason, we will record the sessions for you to access the content at a later date.

With regards to other support, you will have access to the UWTSD online library, as well as their support structures. These include learning support, disability advice, and counseling services.

Course tutor, Emily Foulkes, talks briefly about research and the impact of Singing for Health.

Meet our Tutors

Teresa Shaw

Teresa Shaw graduated as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, an award conferred for artistic excellence. She went on to work as a soloist for the English National Opera in works including The Marriage of Figaro, Orfeo, and King Priam. Her solo performances extend to the London Symphony Orchestra, The London Sinfonietta, The Berlin Symphony Orchestra, and the Monteverdi Choir.

She gained a Distinction in her Voice Pedagogy Masters, and she is pioneering in her work with singers and Music Performance Anxiety. Her paper Piloting a New Model for Treating Music Performance Anxiety: Training a Singing Teacher to Use Acceptance and Commitment Coaching With a Student was published in Frontiers of Psychology. She presented at the Voice Foundation Symposium and was an invited speaker at the AOTOS conference in 2020.

Kate Cubley

Kate Cubley (BA (Hons), MA) is an advanced level Voice Coach, Singing Teacher, singer and researcher working predominantly from her private studio in Cheshire. Kate has a particular interest in encouraging singing for fun, whilst incorporating her specialist knowledge in voice pedagogy, vocal health, body alignment, phonetics, emotion and performance skills. 

Continually committed to teacher training and personal development through practical education, Kate completed the Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop) and UWTSD MA in Professional Practice and Voice Pedagogy in 2019 with Distinction. Her body alignment research was shortlisted as a finalist for the Van Lawrence Prize in 2016 and her poster gained 1^st Place at Teaching Singing in Higher Education – Core Competencies. 

Kate has a BA (Hons) from the University of Sheffield in English Language and Linguistics and is a qualified Level 7 coach and mentor. She is a certified CoreSinging® Teacher, has attended Estill teacher Training Courses, a selection of Vocal Process Singing Teacher Retreats. She is an active member of the British Voice Association, AOTOS, The Musicians Union and The European Voice Teachers Association. 

Emily Foulkes

Emily gained a Distinction in her Master’s in Voice Pedagogy, specialising in Singing for Mental Health, Pain Management, and Trauma-Informed Practice. Her pioneering work within this field led her to establish the Signing for Health Network, attracting National funding to sustain and build the initiative. With a clear mission statement to bridge the gap between theory and practice, Emily has drawn together leading academics and practitioners to engage in knowledge dissemination and research.

Emily has presented at several conferences and events, including the BVA, Voice Geek conference, the MARCH Network, and the Spheres of Singing conference. She was also invited to peer review for the World Health Organisation (WHO). Emily’s recent research Exploring Online singing and Mindfulness for Mental Health is published in the peer-reviewed International Journal for Community Music.

She is a trainer for Trauma-Informed Schools UK and is the Director of Music for Good, a music for well-being charity based in Cornwall. In her work in Cornwall, Emily is a practitioner for the Music Education Hub, Primary Healthcare (Social Prescribing), and local hospital.

She has delivered training/workshops for Cornwall Music Education Hub, Arts & Health South West, Sing for Pleasure, Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop), ArtsLink (West Midlands), Trinity Laban (London), NYMAZ (for Music Education Hub leads in Yorkshire), Sing Space and for the Centre for Child Mental Health (London).

The MA consists of 180 credits in total. There is an opportunity to exit with just 60 credits and a PGCert.

An MA is a lengthy commitment, spanning 33 months of intensive work, which needs to be combined with a demanding professional life and family commitments. For this reason, we advise you to enrol on the PGCert and then continue on the MA pathway.

Please be aware that the PGCert is part of the MA as it forms the first 60 credits; it is NOT a separate course.

Is it possible to enrol onto the MA rather than the PGCert?

It is possible to enrol onto the MA from the outset, allowing an application for a student loan to take place. For UK students, this is an important consideration.

The SLC will provide up to £10,000 of your tuition fees, which will be paid in instalments. Please note that once you enrol onto the MA, you are contractually bound even if you do not complete it. Also, be aware that our instalment programme may not match the Student Loan Company, and temporary borrowing may be necessary.

2021 Course Fee Details

For UK based MA students, do be aware that student finance instalments may not align with the tuition fee schedule. In this case, you will still have to abide by the tuition fee deadlines. This is due to differences in student loan schedules that individual applicants receive and it is not possible to facilitate differing agreements. We would advise you to make sure that you are able to financially commit to this before your application.

Applications will close on Thursday 30th September 2021.

October 2021 Payment Schedules

MA Course fees

Course fees are all non-refundable (apart from the initial £1,000 which has the refundable 14-day cooling off period) and must be paid in accordance with the instalment schedule below:

• To reserve a place on the course, you will need to pay a first instalment of £1,000 (VAT inclusive) payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop).
• The second instalment of £1,308 (VAT inclusive) is directly payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop) by 1^st November 2021.
• The third instalment of £2,308 (VAT inclusive) is directly payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop) by 1^st November 2022.
• The final instalment that is made payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop) of £2,309 is to be paid by 1^st November 2023.
• There is a course fee of £2,070 which is directly payable to University of Wales Trinity St David once enrolment has taken place. This can be paid in instalments.
• In the unlikely event that the course does not run, all fees will be refunded to you.
• While we try to accommodate for Student Loan Company instalments, we cannot guarantee the dates will coincide with your instalments as these are individual to each student. We will still require the payment to be paid on the dates set.
• Please be aware that you will also have to pay fees to UWTSD and the Student Loan Company instalment programme will not match those requests for payment. You may need to borrow in the interim to pay the instalments by the due date.

PGCert Course fees

Course fees are all non-refundable (apart from the initial £698 which has the refundable 14-day cooling off period) and must be paid in accordance with the instalment schedule below:

• To reserve a place on the course, you will need to pay a first instalment of £698 (VAT inclusive) payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop).
• The second instalment of £698 (VAT inclusive) is directly payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop) by 31^st December 2021.
• The third instalment of £699 (VAT inclusive) is directly payable to Voice Study Centre (formerly Voice Workshop). by 28^th February 2022.
• There is a course cost fee of £900 which is directly payable to University of Wales Trinity St David once enrolment has taken place.
• In the unlikely event that the course does not run, all fees will be refunded to you.

Please note, we are only able to accept students from Northern Ireland who are self-funding or privately funding their studies.

We are unable to accept students funding their studies through Northern Ireland student finance.

ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED

What opportunities will the course give me?

Some of the achievements of previous students include:

• Presented work at the Parkinson’s UK conference
• Presented at the MARCH Network Singing for Mental Health event
• Delivered a presentation and workshop for the Centre for Child Mental Health
• Self-published two books available to purchase from Amazon and Waterstones
• Research published in the International Journal for Community Music
• Training has been developed and delivered as a result of research, for Voice Workshop, Sing Space, Music Education Hubs, Community Music organisations
• The Singing for Health Network has been established by a previous student
• Funding has been secured from the NHS, The Lottery and other Trusts and Foundations to further evidence-based Singing for Health provision

 Alumni & Student Achievements