Navigating Vocal Aging for Singers
Monday 20th January 2025, 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.
Monday 2nd June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 9th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 16th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 23rd June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 30th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Certificate in Foundations of Vocology with Adam Roberts
Adam Roberts
This fifteen week (30-hour) Vocology Cohort Intensive provides a comprehensive overview of basic vocal anatomy, physiology, and theories of voice production & perception, fundamentals of vocal health, pathology, evaluation, performance, and habilitation of the speaking and singing voice, and a survey of research, resources, and professional opportunities.
Tuesday 17th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
How to Hack Your Next Audition: The Limbic Response
Dr Katherine Skovira
We all know the feeling: staring down an audition panel, we lock up, our knees and hands shake, our breath stops, and we’re in emotional free fall. This is your limbic system going into hyperdrive. In the audition setting, when the limbic system or paleomammalian cortex kicks into action in the face of a perceived conflict, we experience the body’s answer to stressors from people and social interactions. In this course, Dr Katherine Skovira will walk you through steps to work with your limbic response and choose the most appropriate course of action to nail your next audition while honouring your internal mental and emotional landscape.
Wednesday 18th June 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Alternative Methods of Accent and Dialect coaching - and coaching Neurodiverse Actors
Ellen Hartley
Ellen Hartely has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for over eight years - in this session she will explore how an accent coach can develop and deliver alternative (non-IPA) methods for coaching accents and dialects. There will be a particular focus on developing inclusive and accessible practice for all. Not all actors receive accent and dialect training in IPA, or indeed in any other specialist accent teaching method, others find IPA an unhelpful way to learn. Over a career you may need to find effective ways to coach any, and all, of the following: young people, amateur groups, a cast with mixed experience, professional actors with no formal training, or neurodivergent and learning-disabled actors.