The Inner Animal

Stretch (sourced on Snappa.com, December 2025) As someone working with her own voice now for about 50 years, and with the voices of others for half that time, I’ve come—gratefully—to know and greet the Inner Animal. In my own personal journey, it took me a very long...

Taking up space

Occupying space (sourced on Snappa.com, Sept. 2025) Occupying space is a big theme in singing. It’s interesting how, as vocalists, even though we are performing artists to greater or lesser degrees, we seem to shy away from taking up and using the space that is...

Artist Alchemy

It’s summer, and time to replenish, revive and restore. Time to reflect, dive in, immerse oneself in the sounds, sights, sensations of the season. One of my favourite summer pastimes is reading. Voraciously. Novels (Favourite Daughter). Memoirs (How to survive a...

Return to Self

Selfhood and voice as the path towards it have been the overarching theme of this blog since I started writing in 2019. My preoccupation with this topic has permeated my own artistic practice, my research and my work with students for many years now–probably for...

The Queen in Them

Teiya Kasahara in Tapestry Opera’s Songbook XII (photo: Eric Forget, 2023) This week we were paid a visit by a serious Opera Kween, Teiya Kasahara (they/he), creator and star of their one-human show, “The Queen in Me”. Teiya talked about their...

Trust the impulse

Impulse (sourced on Snappa.com, March 2025) Idea. Breath. Sound. Hesitation is deadly. We sing at our best when the channel is free. Allowing ourselves to trust that what we’ve been working on will serve us in the moment is one of the greatest challenges we...