Autumn Conference 2015

Sunday 1st November

‘Our Bodies, Our Voices’

• Sunday, 1st November, 2015
• St Paul’s Girls’ School, Brook Green,
• Hammersmith, London W6 7BS
• Click here to see map and location.

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Fees

AOTOS MEMBERS	£55.00
NON AOTOS MEMBERS	£75.00
FULL TIME STUDENTS*	£25.00 (*upon proof of eligibility)

(inclusive of morning coffee and lunch)

 

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The Schedule

 

Sunday 1st November

10.30 – 11.00am	Registration and Coffee
11.00 – 12.00 noon	‘From the Womb to the Tomb’ – The larynx at all stages Linda Hutchison shows us how the vocal mechanism evolves from conception through to old age
12.00 – 1.00pm	‘Developing the Professional singer’ Nicholas Sears, Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music, works with outstanding young voices. What characterises those accepted onto the courses, and what does the College aim to do for them during their time there?
1.00pm – 2.15pm	Buffet Lunch (provided by AOTOS)
2.15pm – 2.30pm	Peters Edition: a new project for vocal music needs our help
2.30pm	‘The Holistic Voice Clinic’ Nicholas Gibbins, laryngologist at the Lewisham Voice Clinic, explains the inter-disciplinary approach to treating vocal problems
3.30pm	‘The Voice as Therapy’ Nicola Wydenbach who works with patients with Parkinson’s disease and Eleanor Meynell who works with the dementia charity, Lost Chord, illustrate their work. Nick Gibbins will be on hand to answer questions about how this therapy appears to work on the whole body and mind
4.30pm	Finish

 

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Speakers

 

Linda Hutchison

Linda Hutchison is a member of the vocal department of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a guest tutor at the Irish College of Music Theatre, Dublin and the Specialist Singing Advisor in the Lewisham Voice Clinic. She works with a wide range of professionals from the classical world, music theatre and jazz. She is currently co-authoring a book with Dr Ron Morris on breathing and support based on the Accent Breathing Method.

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Nicholas Sears

Nicholas Sears has been Head of Vocal Studies at the RCM since 2007.  Having performed as an operatic and concert soloist in the UK and internationally for a period of twenty years, Nicholas opted to pursue a career in Artist Management with Intermusica whilst joining the Vocal Faculty at the RNCM.  Nicholas is passionate about the sustained development of voices and the responsibility of teachers, institutions and music professionals to prepare singers for a versatile and flexible approach to their career development.

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Nicholas Gibbins

Nick Gibbins graduated from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in 1998, trained in London, and was appointed Consultant Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL) in 2012.
He runs a multidisciplinary Voice Disorders Unit at UHL and has a specialist interest in the diagnosis and treatment of all types of voice disorder and of the professional voice.
He has written extensively regarding the management of voice disorders. His passions include understanding the evolution of the larynx and ensuring that professional voice users know how to manage their voice, what to do when it goes wrong and looking at the voice user’s health with an all-encompassing holistic approach.

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Nicola Wydenbach

Nicola is a highly experienced educationalist and animateur. She trained as a workshop leader at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh under the guidance of Mary King and Stephen Langridge She works with Streetwise Opera, the BBC on their project Go Sing!, which encouraged the setting up and running of choirs in primary schools , Glyndebourne Young Voices , Aldeburgh’s Albert Herring Feasts, and the Royal Opera House’s Voice of the Future programme 2013-14, Nicola has just been awarded a Scholarship from the Finzi Trust and is the middle of an ongoing residency with Aldeburgh Music, to pursue research into Singing and Parkinson’s.

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Eleanor Meynell

Eleanor started her career at Chetham’s School at Music where she was a first study pianist. Eleanor’s career has since developed in both piano and singing, ranging from membership of the BBC Singers and Monteverdi Choir to accompanying song classes and singing lessons at Banff Centre for the Arts. Eleanor is a passionate educationalist and is highly motivated by the teachings of Kodály which she puts into regular practice in her teaching. She also values highly her work with the charity Lost Chord, performing concerts for people with dementia, for whom she has been working for the last ten years.

 

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