Navigating Vocal Aging for Singers
Thursday 15th January 2026, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (London Time)
As singers approach their senior years, they can benefit greatly from a voice teacher who understands the normal changes involved as they navigate vocal aging. Equipped with knowledge about what affects their voices now, what strategies address the changes, and what vocal limits there may be going forward are important to know. How is resonance affected? Vibration? Respiration? What exercises can habilitate senior voices? What singing concepts carry through? How is musicianship affected? Range? Vibrato? Coloratura? Dynamics? Diction? Vocal color? Some who look for a voice teacher are lifetime amateurs with experience and pride as volunteer singers. Some are professionals who have had careers and are experiencing changes in their abilities that make it harder to meet professional standards. Others may be very new to singing and now have time to try it out as the healthy activity at this point in their lives.
This course will focus on the realities of aging voices for senior singers and what can be done to address vocal production and peripheral issues that can affect the activity of singing. Teachers can help professional and amateur singers understand, accept, and maintain their voices as they age.
Karen Brunssen
Mezzo-soprano, Karen Brunssen is Professor and Co-chair of the Department of Music Performance at Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University.
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Wednesday 4th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 11th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 18th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 25th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 1st April 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 8th April 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(London Time)
Learn to Coach RP and SSBE – a Certificate in Accent Coaching
Louisa Morgan
This six-week course is an opportunity to learn about both Received Pronunciation and Standard Southern British English. Rather than a course in learning how to speak RP/SSBE (there are many brilliant available courses for this already), this course is about learning how to coach it.
Tuesday 17th March 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
The Use of Vibrato in Belt and Legit Styles of Singing in Professional Female Musical Theatre Performers
Dr. Alyssa Becker
Shaped by the popular music of its time, musical theatre blends storytelling with an ever-evolving range of vocal styles—from classical legit singing to jazz, hip-hop, and powerhouse belting. Despite its importance, much of what we understand about vibrato comes from laboratory-based studies that strip singing of its musical, stylistic, and performance context. Join Dr Alyssa Becker as she connects current research with real-world pedagogy, revealing how elite musical theatre performers strategically use vibrato to shape style and storytelling, and showing how these insights can be applied in the voice studio to train stylistic flexibility and control!
Wednesday 18th March 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Facilitating Jaw Release Through Improved Habits of Stance and Alignment
Ruth Williams Hennessy
Are you a singer or speaker struggling with stubborn jaw tension that just won't quit? Even with elite training, the "stuck" jaw is often a symptom of a surprising culprit: your feet! Join Ruth Hennessy in this interactive workshop where she bridges the gap between podiatry and phonation, moving beyond "temporary fixes" to address the physical misalignments that bottleneck your performance.