Announcing our speakers!
Christella Antoni
Speech and language therapist specialist in trans voices
ITV This Morning, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4
Mark De-Lisser
Gospel arranger, choir director and vocal coach
The Masked Singer, The Voice, Songs of Praise
Heidi Moss Erickson
Soprano, Scientist, Pedagogue
Professor of Vocal Physiology, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Hadley Fraser
West End, Broadway, TV and film singer,
Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Snow White (film)
Mr Nicholas Gibbins
Lead Clinician for Laryngology and ENT Surgeon,
NHS Specialist Voice Clinic Lewisham Hospital
Rachelle Jonck
Classical vocal coach, pianist and conductor, Tonebase,
Co-founder and Executive Director of Bel Canto Boot Camp
Aliki Katriou
Metal vocalist, singing teacher, vocal rehabilitation specialist
Eight Lives Down, Desolate Plains, New York Vocal Coaching
Abigail Mann-Daraz
Singing teacher, pedagogue
Singing for Health network, The Amber Trust
Jono McNeil
CCM vocal coach, arranger, production and artist developer,
The Masked Singer, The Voice, RuPaul’s Drag Race
Samyukta Ranganathan
Classical South Indian (Carnatic) vocalist, educator and cutting-edge researcher
Master of Arts in Vocal Pedagogy, skilled in live biofeedback
Williams Spaulding
Chorus Master of the Royal Ballet and Opera
Conductor of the Songs for Ukraine chorus
Genevieve Tawiah
Performance physiotherapist
West End, Strictly Come Dancing, Walk with Amal, ArtsEd, Harley Street, Italia Conti
Dr Jenevora Williams
Author, singing teacher, vocal rehabilitation coach, teacher trainer and mentor
Co-Founder, Vocal Health Education
About the speakers
Mr Nicholas Gibbins FRCS MD
Singer’s Pathology: What Problems Do Singers Have in The Voice Clinic Compared to The Normal Population?
Mr Gibbins has been a Consultant Laryngologist and ENT Surgeon since 2012. In the NHS he works at University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woolwich where he is Lead Clinician for Laryngology and ex-Clinical Director. He is part of the head and neck, and thyroid cancer multidisciplinary teams. He is President of the British Laryngological Association.
Mr Gibbins has a specialist interest in voice disorders of all types especially the professional voice user. He has seen and treated many singers of all genres for emergencies, routine check-ups and if necessary, for surgery.
He has strong links with a wide team of allied professionals with whom he coordinates treatments from physiotherapy, osteopathy, speech therapy, vocal rehabilitation through to kinetic chain physiotherapy assessments.
He is a sought-after speaker nationally and internationally for his work on vocal fold scars and sulcus, and muscle tension problems affecting the voice.
He graduated in 1998 from Guy’s Hospital, London and trained in Australia and the UK, completing his training in London and was awarded a Medical Doctorate for advanced research into tongue cancers from University of Sussex in 2011. He regularly teaches and lectures on voice related topics. He has published extensively including book chapters, invited articles and scientific papers. He is currently the editor for the Chapter ‘The Larynx’ in the 43rd (current) Edition of Gray’s Anatomy, and Gray’s Surgical Anatomy.
Mark De-Lisser
Mark De-Lisser is one of the most sought after choral directors and vocal coaches in the UK.
He has worked with some of today’s top vocal talent, including Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Beverley Knight, and on some of the UK’s most watched TV shows, including BBC’s BAFTA-nominated Our Dementia Choir with Vicky McClure, Songs of Praise and ITV’s award-winning The Masked Singer.
Driven to inspire and motivate everybody to succeed, Mark helps to increase confidence and self-awareness, whilst improving technique and delivery. Anybody who is fortunate to work with Mark is left feeling uplifted and invigorated.
Mark is perhaps best known for his arrangement of Stand by Me, performed by the Kingdom Choir at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, which has now been streamed more than 4 million times on Spotify and has over 10 million views on YouTube.
Dr Jenevora Williams
The Power of Positive Language: utilising placebo, recognising nocebo and exploring the expectation effect
Dr Jenevora Williams is an expert in the fields of vocal health and singing teaching. After a successful career in Opera, Jenevora turned her attention to investigating healthy and efficient vocal function. The combination of academic study and practical experience has resulted in a unique perception for understanding the human voice. She was the first singing teacher to be awarded a PhD in voice science in the UK, and won the 2010 BVA Van Lawrence Prize for her outstanding contribution to voice research. Her book, Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults, has been enormously popular with singing teachers throughout the world. The substantially updated third edition is available now from Full Voice Music.
Jenevora is well-known for her imaginative and rigorous international training courses for singing teachers and voice professionals. She is director of Vocal Health Education and Evolving Voice, training the first generation of Voice Rehabilitation Specialists worldwide. As a teacher of singing, she works with professional singers of all ages in both voice rehabilitation and career mentoring. More details about Jenevora and her work can be found here.
Rachelle Jonck
Classical Techniques and Modern Expression
Rachelle Jonck is a vocal coach based in New York City specialising in the historic tradition of the bel canto style of singing. She received her musical training at the conservatory of the University of Stellenbosch majoring in both piano and musicology. For her contributions to opera in South Africa, she was awarded a FNB/Vita award and the Nederburg Opera Prize – South Africa’s premier opera award. She moved to the United States in 1998 as Head Coach of Bel Canto at Caramoor.
During the COVID-19 pandemic she established Bel Canto Boot Camp – now a non-profit organisation striving to make high level teaching accessible to everybody breaking the often prohibitive barriers of distance, cost, time, and audition-only programs. BCBC’s signature course, The Vaccai Project, sells worldwide through Amazon. This season sees her teaching at the Wiener Volksoper, the Lunenberg Academy for Music Performance in Nova Scotia (Canada), the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto (Canada) and the NATS intern program. Summer 2025 includes a residency at the Santa Fe Opera, conducting L’elisir d’amore for the Mediterranean Opera School and Festival in Sicily, Bel Canto Boot Camp’s first coaching retreat in Tuscany and a return to South Africa to teach at various universities.
Christella Antoni
Vocal changes: Working with transgender and gender diverse voice
Christella Antoni is a senior Voice Specialist SLT. She specialises in a wide range of voice work from voice disorders, singing and performance voice and transgender voice. She has worked with Oscar, BAFTA and Brit award winning performers. She regularly presents both nationally and internationally. Christella is the leading UK expert in the field of transgender voice, a visiting lecturer at UCL and part of the teaching faculty for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
Qualifying in 1995 from UCL, Christella Worked for over 20 years in UK NHS services including 2 Lead Clinician voice posts. Now primarily in private practice, she maintains close links with leading ENT colleagues and voice practitioners both nationally and internationally. Training, resource development and supervision of voice SLTs forms a consistent part of Christella’s work. Together with Speech Tolls Ltd, she devised the VoiceUp voice feminisation app.
Publications include: ‘Pitch in transgender and gender non-conforming voice care’ (2023) and ‘Practical Laryngology’ (2016). Christella’s media work includes This Morning (ITV); The Voice (BBC 4), A Voice Like Honey (BBC Radio2).
Jono McNeil
Staying relevant in the ever changing world of pop music
Jono McNeil is a London-based vocal coach, arranger, director and producer whose expertise has made him a key figure in the music industry. He collaborates with an array of leading artists including Grammy-nominated Afrobeats star Ayra Starr, BRIT Award-winning JADE, Essosa, JLS, New Rules and Say Now providing performance coaching, creative direction, vocal technique and arrangement.
Beyond his work with artists, Jono is a sought-after vocal coach across television and entertainment, contributing to major productions such as RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (on-screen), The Masked Singer, The Voice UK, The Voice Kids, and Little Mix: The Search. He is set to feature in two new highly anticipated shows this year.
An accomplished performer, Jono has worked with Michael Bublé, Paloma Faith, Josh Groban, Nelly, Jamie Cullum, Philip Selway (Radiohead), Lemar, George Ezra, and Jocelyn Brown, blending his firsthand experience as an artist with his work in vocal artistry and music direction.
Academically, he holds a Master’s degree in Voice Pedagogy and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz. With a passion for excellence in popular music, innovation, and youth culture, Jono McNeil is synonymous with artistry at the highest level, shaping some of the most cutting-edge performances in the industry today.
Heidi Moss Erickson
Singing in the Brain: Rewiring the Future of Vocal Pedagogy
Heidi Moss Erickson is a performer, educator, and scientist. Hailed for her “rich and radiant soprano,” she has enjoyed a 20-year career spanning opera and concert repertoire, with a special focus on new music.
Heidi earned a dual degree in biology and voice at Oberlin, where she worked in the voice lab of Richard Miller. She pursued graduate studies in biochemistry and neuroscience and spent seven years conducting molecular biology research at Rockefeller University. Her scientific contributions include a landmark Cell paper revealing that telomeres—the ends of DNA—form protective loops.
In 2007, a rare CNVII nerve injury left her unable to sing. Told she might never recover, she turned back to neuroscience and psychology, exploring how the brain controls the voice. Through science, persistence, and artistry, she reclaimed her instrument and singing career.
Today, Heidi integrates research and performance in courses, lectures, and appearances around the world, including Renée Fleming’s Music and Mind series. Her published work bridges neuroscience, vocal pedagogy, and rehabilitation, and she is currently writing a book.
She is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of the Pacific. She lives with her husband, composer Kurt Erickson, their children, and an abundance of cats.
Genevieve Tawiah
Vocal Physiotherapy – how tuning in with yourself can facilitate improvement and optimisation of your voice.
Performance and Vocal Physiotherapist. Genevieve is passionate about team work with her patients and the clinicians around her. Her ethos is helping people understand more about the body that they live in, in order to help them maintain themselves well; recover efficiently, and reduce risk of further injury. As well as general physiotherapy she has a speciality in vocal and jaw physiotherapy with a holistic approach – treating her patients as a whole with the aim to help them work towards what is important to them. She aims for clear liaison with other individuals involved in their care whilst doing so.
Genevieve has a background in dancing, a love of music and a keen interest in performing arts which originally brought her into work in the field and continues to drive her interest in supporting performers. With a history of providing vocal physiotherapy mainly in theatre and clinic, she now works with singers in their place of study at Arts Ed; via workshops at various other locations; in clinic and often supports artists in the music industry on tour. She also sees an array of musculoskeletal presentations in clinic.
Abigail Mann-Daraz
Sensitive Voice Work: Inclusive Tools for Neurodivergent and Sensory-Sensitive Singing Practice.
Abigail Mann-Daraz BSc MA MISM GMBPsS is a voice confidence specialist, educator, and founder of The Musical Self—a practice dedicated to inclusive voice work. With a background in psychology, research, and vocal performance, Abigail offers a compassionate, research-informed approach to vocal practice.
Her work spans singing teaching, voice coaching, music education, and therapeutic voice work. Abigail’s client base includes professional performers and individuals within SEND, PMLD, and palliative care communities—groups that are not mutually exclusive. She works internationally with organisations, advising and training voice practitioners in inclusive practice.
Her forthcoming book supports singing teachers and voice coaches in building confidence when working with marginalised and neurodivergent groups, and includes findings from her recent research into singing pedagogy and minimally verbal populations.
Abigail recently coordinated a two-year project at the International Centre for Community Music at York St John University, in collaboration with the Royal College of Music and the Singing for Health Network. The project brought together international researchers to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange on the health benefits of group singing.
Abigail also works for The Amber Trust as a SEND Music Practitioner, supporting blind and partially sighted children, including those with profound and multiple disabilities.
Aliki Katriou
Singing: Texture and Noise
Aliki Katriou is a metalhead based in Croatia. She has an extensive knowledge of classical technique, contemporary styles and extreme vocals. Since 2013, she has been teaching voice to students from around the globe in many different genres, her specialty being sub-genres of metal.
Aliki is known as the vocalist and lyricist for her band; Eight Lives Down, as well as the critically acclaimed Greek metal project Desolate Plains.
She completed her teacher training with Justin Stoney at New York Vocal Coaching, then trained as an advanced voice teacher with Dr. Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher of Vocal Process. She has training in Vocal Massage and Laryngeal Manipulation with Stephen King and Walt Fritz. In 2023, she completed the full pathway of ‘Vocal Rehabilitation Specialist’ with Dr Jenevora Willams, Stephen King and the team from Vocal Health Education.
Samyukta Ranganathan
Exploring Ornamentations in Carnatic Singing
Samyukta is a voice teacher, researcher, and award-winning vocalist specialising in South Indian (Carnatic) and Hindustani classical music. She holds an MA in Voice Pedagogy from the Voice Study Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and is currently pursuing doctoral research at the Institute of Education, University College London. Her research explores voice production, stylistic authenticity, and pedagogy within Indian Classical singing traditions, integrating scientific inquiry with culturally situated practice.
Samyukta’s work has been published in Australian Voice and Voice and Speech Review, and she has presented at international conferences including ISME, PEVOC, and VASTA. As a founding member of the Transformational Voice Research Network, she is dedicated to advancing culturally responsive voice research.
Certified by New York Vocal Coaching and Vocal Health Education, Samyukta maintains an active international career as a performer and teacher based in New York City. Her teaching is rooted in rigorous pedagogy and deep respect for Indian Classical traditions, aiming to bridge tradition with contemporary voice science.
Hadley Fraser
Climb Every Mountain
Hadley Fraser is an in-demand actor, singer, writer and teacher. His recent theatre credits include THE DEEP BLUE SEA at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Rufus Wainwright’s OPENING NIGHT at the Gielgud Theatre, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, 2:22 A GHOST STORY at the Noel Coward Theatre and CITY OF ANGELS at The Garrick Theatre. Recent screen credits include Disney’s SNOW WHITE and THE GOLD for the BBC. He has recently released his third solo studio album, THINGS THAT COME AND GO, launched in concert at Cadogan Hall. His other concert work includes DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and THE SECRET GARDEN at the London Palladium and CHESS at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Together with Ramin Karimloo he has toured extensively with various projects including their own FROM THE REHEARSAL ROOM which returned to London at the Savoy Theatre in 2023. He wrote the book and lyrics for COMMITTEE at the Donmar Warehouse. Hadley is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and regularly teaches masterclasses and Acting Through Song at that institution. He is also a Patron of PPA in Guildford and Debut Performing Arts College in Manchester.