This is, first of all, a practical, body-based program.

This means that, while I value, honor and am in awe of the rational mind, the analytical mind, the thinking brain - in this program (and in my work in general), we consciously invite the brilliance of our minds to serve the wisdom of our bodies instead of the other way around. Practice, practice, practice. Learning through doing. (I was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. Broadly speaking, critical thinking and analysis were the primary lenses through which I experienced the world and how I looked out at the world. But my journey of the past twenty years has been a journey back into my noticing my body, loving my body, respecting my body, listening to my body, engaging her wisdom, and then clarifying my body-wisdom with the beautiful sharpness of my mind.)

When it comes to creating a Teacher Training program, especially a singing Teacher Training program, this order of priorities matters.

It's also how I learned to teach. I put my body near my teacher’s day after day after week after week after year after year.

I witnessed her teaching lesson after lesson after lesson.

I spent hours with her, lying on my back, arms wide open, head on a pillow listening to recordings of opera singers from the early 1900s (singers like Amelita Galli-Curci, Tito Schipa, Alma Gluck, Claudia Muzio).

Our listening to these singers wasn't directional or analytical as in - “Do you hear the healthy forward placement in the mask there," or "Do you notice where they lost some breath control," or “Do you hear how she manages her passagio well?” Nope.

I was invited to just be. To observe my body-response. To feel vibrations in my own body at the level of sensation. To notice where they were located and how they were traveling. I was invited to feel what I really felt. To invite my own experience to speak to me. (Only later have I come to understand how connected this early work is to Somatic-based therapeutic practices. Side note: I share many more stories about my singing journey and experience in the book I'm writing. It's taking forever, but a first draft is forthcoming! Can't wait to share.)

At its core, this singing work is actually human-ing work. It’s about deepening into our human experience.

And for me it is about - perhaps most of all - freedom of expression.

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This Teacher Training is first of all experiential and practical. But there is also plenty of theory: There are readings, there are teaching videos, discussions about gentle phonation, and breathing. I'm creating specific units on anatomy, breathing, Tantra and sexuality, emotions and Core Sounding™, power dynamics and ethics, music and embodied musical practices, and more.

I’ve also got incredible guest teachers lined up. We'll work with my teacher Deborah Carmichael and our guest teacher is Ishita Sharma who will be offering a module on embodying power (as part of the larger power/ethics unit).

Can you tell I’m excited?

I strongly believe we need more teachers doing this kind of powerful, transformative healing holistic vocal work. Each teacher brings their own desires, interests, sets of experiences and gifts. Because different students will be drawn to them than are drawn to me, this transformative work will be able to reach people I might never myself connect with.