Review by TOSINI member Diane Morrison of conference held in the Grand Opera House, Belfast on Sat. 24th Sept. 2011
On a bright and sunny Saturday morning TOSINI held their first one day conference in association with NI Opera. The conference took place at the Grand Opera House Belfast, a fantastic venue and most appropriate for our work at hand. The delegates included singers, speech and language therapists, classroom music teachers and singing teachers both new and experienced. We came from all over Ireland and it was great to see so many faces, some new, some familiar while we were welcomed with a much needed cuppa!
Elizabeth Drwal-Stuttard began our busy day with some singing and musicianship approaches used with primary school teaching, complete with coloured mats and fun filled exercises to wake up mind and body! Her love and enthusiasm for her subject was infectious as she demonstrated some excellent Dalacroze and Kodaly techniques, even showing us a video of a class in action. It was fantastic to see how the children developed through the class using methods that were instructive yet enjoyable.
Next Mairéad Duffy combined an adolescent voices presentation compiled by Marie O’Sullivan along with teaching rock, pop and musical theatre which complimented each other extremely well. Mairéad stressed the importance of healthy, safe singing in all disciplines, how to use the text for effective communication as well as some fun singing and body percussion exercises which kept us on our toes!
David Robertson followed with a fascinating insight using Learning Methods and Alexander technique to recognize cause and effect for singers; specifically how and why performance anxiety can manifest. This is of paramount importance to us as singers and performers but also useful to understand how we can help our students perform without distress. David really made us question the reasons why we could end up in overwhelming performance situations and many of us came away with a new perspective on such an important topic.
To complete our morning Pamela Neal and ‘George’ (her model skeleton- I’m sure she must have got some looks bringing him through the Opera House!) explained about the role of Pilates for singers. Pamela revealed in great depth some of the reasons for the physical exercises we may do as singers and gave us some new examples to try out in the session.
After lunch (always a great time to meet new people, share ideas and experiences and catch up with other workshop veterans!) we were delighted to welcome back Paul Deegan for an extended session on teaching a ‘first lesson’. Paul focussed on the recent trend of adult singers; from who we may expect to teach, to what vocal issues we may face and how to assist as teachers. Having been to a number of Paul’s sessions I am always left with new ideas and points for reflection and I’m sure those there for the first time were just as inspired by what he had to say. We were fortunate enough to see this in action with a very brave young vocal student who not only had to sing in front of a crowd of singers but then have Paul work with her immediately after. The progress achieved in a very short space of time was significant and I hope she found the experience as positive as we did.
Pat McAlinden led the final session on the all-important business side of private teaching, reinforcing our need to make sure our practices are carried out in a professional and economically viable manner. Her story of leaving a full time teaching job and setting up a fully equipped performing arts studio let us see that even in difficult economic times an entrepreneurial spirit and a well thought-out survival strategy can still achieve success.
We completed the afternoon with a Q&A and departed with minds full of new and refreshed ideas. I would like to personally thank those at TOSINI and NI Opera who helped this informative and enjoyable event take place and to all the presenters who came to share their experience with us.
