Autumn 2023 Conference: Member presentations
Member presentations at the conference
Earlier in the year we launched a call for the submission of abstracts for presentation at our Summer Conference 2023: Global Connections – The Wisdom Among Us. We were so delighted with the response that we brought it back this autumn. Our anonymous panel selected the following three presentations from AOTOS members, which will be delivered in person on Sunday 29 October at St Paul's Girls' School.
- Louise Gibbs, Which Course?
- Jo Sear, Addressing the Popular Music gap in secondary singing tuition
- Jenevora Williams, Vocal Health Information - a lucky dip for students
Which Course? Advising and preparing singers into, through, and out of HE study – Louise Gibbs
Click here to read the abstract
LOUISE GIBBS, MA, MEd, FHEA, LTCL, is a jazz singer, composer and educator, and graduate in both music and education from Columbia University, New York. She is Visiting Professor at the University of Chester, and teaches jazz and popular voice and musicianship for the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and York.
Louise has held academic positions at Leeds College of Music (Course Leader for the Postgraduate Programme and the Jazz Programmes), Goldsmiths, University of London, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Royal College of Music, and given workshops for major conservatoires and international institutions in the US and New Zealand. She maintains active research and writing interests in voice, improvisation, education and musical aesthetics. Louise is currently President of the multidisciplinary British Voice Association.
Addressing the Popular Music gap in secondary singing tuition: how do we move forward? – Jo Sear
Click here to read the abstract
JO SEAR has been singing rock, pop and soul music all her life. She joined her first professional working band at age 21 and has been behind a microphone ever since, singing lead and backing vocals in a wide variety of rock, soul and blues bands, working as a session singer and taking part in many stage productions, including several at the London Palladium. Her current band is Soul Enforcement Bureau, an 8-piece professional soul band.
She has been a teacher of CCM singing styles exclusively for over 17 years, working both privately and within secondary and dance schools. She has trained extensively in many different areas of voice study, including the Estill Model, advanced anatomy and voice acoustics, and has taught a wide range of students, from amateurs to professionals. She completed her MA in Voice Pedagogy with Distinction in April 2021 and is a passionate advocate of the importance of training more rock/pop teachers and conducting more contemporary voice research. Her final dissertation project - a research-based curriculum outline for training Popular Music singing teachers - has recently been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Popular Music Education.
Jo began PhD study at the Royal Northern College of Music in September 2023 on the institution’s Music Education pathway. She is a member of APME, AOTOS and the British Voice Association and has presented for the BVA on several occasions.
Vocal Health Information: a lucky dip for students – Dr Jenevora Williams
Click here to read the abstract
DR JENEVORA WILLIAMS is a leading exponent in the field 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. She is well-known for her imaginative and rigorous international training courses for singing teachers and voice professionals. She now runs 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.