Presented by Juliette Caton. Edited by Sam Benoiton.

Susan Lowell de Solórzano first stumbled onto biotensegrity in 2008 while trying to deepen her understanding of the practice and classic writings of T’ai Chi Ch’uan; she has been a student of biotensegrity ever since. Susan began working directly with Steve Levin in 2009, and co-founded the Stephen M. Levin Biotensegrity Archive with Steve and his wife, Olga Cox-Levin, in 2015. Her book, Everything Moves: How biotensegrity informs human movement was published by Handspring Publishing in 2020. Susan is showrunner/ co-producer/ co-host of the BiotensegriTea Parties, author of the Biotensegrity Archive’s BX101 Guide, and producer of the Colloquy on Biotensegrity & Equine Health.

Susan is an ATCQA Level III certified T’ai Chi and Qi Gong teacher, and holds an MA in human development and education specializing in kinesthetic learning.

weblinks:

biotensegrityarchive.org

TheSoftAnswer.com

twitter: @1biotensegrity

Watch Susan discuss biotensegrity

https://youtu.be/X7SysZpSS6k?si=4nJrwicU6pQWJVSZ

Listen to Ida Rolfe as referred to by Susan in our interview

https://www.rolf.org/ida_teaches.php

VOICE CHOICE - Listen to Susan’s favourite vocal performance on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0%E2%81%A0⁠

Join the ⁠VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB⁠

Train your voice with JULIETTE CATON in the ⁠VOCALSCOPE VOICE STUDIO⁠

Follow Vocalscope on socials @‌vocalscope & @‌vocalscopevoice

Presented by Juliette Caton. Edited by Sam Benoiton.

Tina is the author of "Unleashing the potential of the musician's body" and the creator of the movement system Timani, which develops a deep understanding of the body to support technique and performance for musicians. In 2013 she founded the Musicians’ Health and Movement Institute (MHMI) where she runs a 3-year part-time certification program for professional musicians, training them to become Timani teachers and how to implement the knowledge in their own playing. Since 2007 she has taught Timani to thousands of musicians from all over the world, everything from orchestras, chamber music groups, students and soloists.

Tina has taught Timani workshops at amongst other Juilliard in New York, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, The Music Academy in Basel, Royal College of Music in London, The Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen and for orchestras such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra.

Her background in anatomy and movement comes from her studies as a Massage Therapist, Personal Trainer, Kinetic Control Movement Therapist, twice a certified yoga teacher and through Kinaesthesia for pianists from the University of Arts in Berlin.

Tina has presented at many performing arts medicine conferences and symposiums, amongst other at PAMA in Hollywood, ISPS in Melbourne and MHPC in Helsinki. As a pianist, she holds a MA from the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and has performed solo and duet recitals in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, England, USA, Moscow, Italy, New York, and Philadelphia amongst other. She has released four critically acclaimed CDs and has received several grants and awards, including the two-year Norwegian artists’ working grant from the Norwegian Arts Council, Jansons Fund, RWE-Dea, and the Norwegian Fund for Performing Artists.

MAIN WEBSITE https://www.timani.no/ MEMBERSHIP https://www.timanicommunity.com/ BOOK https://giamusic.com/store/resource/unleashing-the-potential-of-the-musicians-body-book-10856 3-YEAR CERTIFICATION COURSE https://www.timanicertificationcourse.com/ PERSONAL WEBSITE AND BLOG https://www.tinanilssen.no/ PUBLISHED RESEARCH ARTICLE https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.834012/full

VOICE CHOICE - Listen to Tina’s favourite vocal performance ‘Ice Bin Der Velt Abhanden Gekommen' by Jessie Norman on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0%E2%81%A0⁠

Watch that Jessie Norman performance here: https://youtu.be/bxh-VTqNK0c?si=AfN5PNCwI7ZRkdbR

Join the ⁠⁠VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB⁠⁠

Train your voice with JULIETTE CATON in the ⁠⁠VOCALSCOPE VOICE STUDIO⁠⁠

Follow Vocalscope on socials @‌vocalscope & @‌vocalscopevoice

Presented by Juliette Caton. Edited by Sam Benoiton.

"Xenia's approach to this subject is a breath of fresh air. Broadly rooted in calming down our physiological responses, she opens up important areas of exploration with a light touch and keen insight."

- Steven Osborne, concert pianist

Dr Xenia Pestova Bennett is an internationally active concert pianist and composer. She combines her research and experience in performance anxiety with extensive accredited training as a yoga, breathwork and meditation instructor. Having studied in the UK, The Netherlands and Canada, Xenia holds a Doctorate in Performance from McGill University. Her wellness training includes Hatha Yoga Teacher Training, Yin/Yang Yoga and Mindfulness with Sarah Powers, Oxygen Advantage® functional breathing and Buteyko Method instructor training with Patrick McKeown, and Yoga Mindset Coaching training with Karina Ayn Mirsky. Xenia is in demand as lecturer and coach on wellbeing and anxiety management for organisations including the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine, Contemporary Music Centre (Ireland), Facebook, Moving on Music, Sound and Music, Triyoga UK, and tertiary educational institutions around the world. In 2022 and 2023, she presented 66 workshops in schools across Ireland reaching 580 participants in an ambitious "Befriending Anxiety" programme with The Music Network.

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Xenia’s favourite vocal performance ‘How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?' by Sparks on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0%E2%81%A0

Attend Xenia's Befriending Performance Anxiety Course using our listeners 20% discount code: VOCALSCOPE20

https://xeniapestovabennett.com/perform

Join the ⁠VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB⁠

Train your voice with JULIETTE CATON in the ⁠VOCALSCOPE VOICE STUDIO⁠

Follow Vocalscope on socials @‌vocalscope & @‌vocalscopevoice

Presented by Juliette Caton. Edited by Sam Benoiton.

Nina Sun Eidsheim (she/her) is Professor of Musicology, at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She is also a vocalist and the founder and director of the UCLA Practice-based Experimental Epistemology Research (PEER) Lab, an experimental research Lab dedicated to decolonializing data, methodology, and analysis, in and through multisensory creative practices. 

She writes about voice, race, and materiality, including the books Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice and The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. Publications include The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music (Duke University Press, 2019); Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice (Duke University Press, 2015); Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies (co-editor, OUP, 2019); and she is co-editor of the Refiguring American Music book series for Duke University Press.

Her work has been recognized in many ways, including by the Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Cornell University Society of the Humanities Fellowship, the UC President’s Faculty Research Fellowship and the ACLS Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship. She received her bachelor of music from the voice program at the Agder Conservatory (Norway); MFA in vocal performance from the California Institute of the Arts; and Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of California, San Diego. 

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Nina’s favourite vocal performance ‘This Love Of Mine' by Jimmy Scott on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0⁠

The Race of Sound is part of an open source program and free here, if you’re interested: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9sn4k8dr If you want to purchase the paper back copy with a 30% discount code (no expiration date) for both Sensing Sound and The Race of Sound: E24EIDSH https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-race-of-sound⁠

https://www.dukeupress.edu/sensing-sound

Follow Nina:

@ninaeidsheim (Instagram) @peerlabucla (Instagram)

Join the ⁠VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB⁠

Train your voice with JULIETTE CATON in the ⁠VOCALSCOPE VOICE STUDIO⁠

Follow Vocalscope: @‌vocalscope & @‌vocalscopevoice

www.vocalscopevoice.com

Presented by Juliette Caton. Edited by Sam Benoiton.

Can music make you sick? Is being a music artist detrimental to a musician's wellbeing and mental health? What are the impacts of saturation caused by the digital age on the music maker and the consumer? How can the music industry be totally transformed into a better music making and consuming world for us all?

Sally Anne Gross is both a music industry practitioner and an academic who in 1993 was the first women to work as an A&R manager at Mercury Records and in the same year she chaired the first ever panel on women in the music industries at ‘In The City’ music conference in Manchester.

She was also a founder member of Out on Vinyl the first ever UK record label for the LGBTQ community. Sally Anne has been working in the music industry for three decades as an artist manager, record label director and international business affairs consultant. 

In her current role at the University of Westminster, she is the program director of the MA in Music Business Management where she teaches Intellectual Property and Copyright Management, Artist & Repertoire and Music Development. 

In 2016 she founded ‘Let’s Change the Record’ a project that focuses on bridging the gender divide in music production by running inclusive audio engineering and song writing workshops for people identifying as women or non-binary.

Sally Anne is interested in working practices in the music industries and the conditions of digital labour and specifically how they impact on questions of diversity, equality and mental health. 

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Sally’s favourite vocal performance ‘Nothing Compares To You' by Sinead O'Connor on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0

Sally Anne Gross' website www.sallyannegross.com

Can Music Make You Sick?

Join the VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB

Train your voice with JULIETTE CATON in the VOCALSCOPE VOICE STUDIO

Follow Vocalscope on socials @vocalscope & @vocalscopevoice

Presented by Juliette Caton / Edited by Sam Benoiton

Matthew Mills (he, him) is a Lead Consultant Speech and Language Therapist, and Head of Speech and Language Therapy at the London Gender Identity Clinic, where he has worked since 2009. He is a National Adviser in Trans Voice for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, founder member of the Trans Voice Clinical Excellence Network and External Examiner for the Voice Studies MA/MFA at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Matthew is current President of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialsts (BAGIS).

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Matthew’s favourite vocal performance ‘Home' MJ Rodriguez on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0?si=8380f4264b42464e 

VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB - Join the VocalScope Book Club: https://www.vocalscopevoice.com/bookclub 

VOCALSCOPE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vocalscope 

VOCALSCOPE Socials: @vocalscope

www.vocalscopevoice.com

Presented by Juliette Caton

Edited by Sam Benoiton

Gillie Stoneham began her career as a speech and language therapist and after completing her Masters in Human Communication was a Senior Lecturer on a BSc Speech Language Therapy programme for many years. 

She began to specialise in voice both within this role and through her company which offers theatre skills in the workplace to build personal impact.  

Through clinical practice within her lecturing role she first worked in gender affirming voice and communication in 2006  in the South West of England, and has developed a specialist role in the 17 years since. 

She presents nationally and internationally in specialist conferences and study days and took up a part time consultancy role for the Tavistock & Portman Trust at the London Gender Clinic in 2016, working closely with Matthew Mills. 

It was whilst she was in this post, that she co-authored 2 books with Matthew Mills and designed and delivered specialist training programmes for voice therapists nationally. 

Gillie is a founding member of the Clinical Excellence Network (known as the CEN) in trans voice and communication and also of BAGIS which is the (British Association of Gender Identity Specialists). She also helped in writing the competency framework for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT). 

TRAIN WITH GILLIE at VOICE STUDY CENTRE 

Certificate in Gender-Affirming Voice & Communication Coaching with Gillie Stoneham

Join Gillie for a deep dive into coaching transgender voices, drawing on her specialist knowledge to deliver introductory and orientation material right through to professional competence and vocal coaching implications – and everything in between.

https://voicestudycentre.com/online-certificated-courses/certificate-in-gender-affirming-voice-communication-coaching-with-gillie-stoneham/#overview

Gillie's Website: www.actorfactor.co.uk 

Gender Identity South West - www.genderidentitysouthwest.co.uk

Gillie’s socials: @gilliestoneham /  @ActorFactorinfo 

Linked In: Gillie Stoneham

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Gillie’s favourite vocal performance ‘Hope There's Someone' from the album I Am A Bird Now by Anohni - (Antony Hegarty transitioned and is now known as Anohni) Antony & the Johnsons on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0?si=8380f4264b42464e 

VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB - Join the VocalScope Book Club: https://www.vocalscopevoice.com/bookclub 

VOCALSCOPE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vocalscope 

VOCALSCOPE Socials: @vocalscope

www.vocalscopevoice.com

Vocalscope Podcast & Book Club Host, Juliette Caton, announces the 2023 VocalScope Book Club Reading List, which launches with the first two seasons - 'Trans & Non-Binary Voices' (Season 1 - January to March) and 'Sounds of Race' (Season 2 - April to July). 

In the VocalScope Book Club members get to:

READ & DISCUSS

Nominate and vote for the monthly book selection. Share the journey of reading and learning along the way with like-minded practise focussed peers in our online members group.

QUESTION & PROCESS

VocalScope Podcast Presenter, Juliette Caton, will host a members only monthly Q&A event giving you direct access to ask the Author of the Month your questions, before we open it up for group chat and discussion.

INSPIRE & IMPLEMENT

Harness new learning by exploring and developing together innovative yet practical ways that allow our reading and discussion to inform, elevate and transform future practise in our respective studios, clinics, practises, conservatoires, institutions & performing careers.

Find out more and sign up: https://vocalscope.ac-page.com/book-club-sign-up

#vocalscope #bookclub #vocalscopebookclub #2023ReadingList 

Jesse Smith is a rock singer, musician and songwriter based in London. A rock and pop vocalist, a self releasing singer songwriter and also currently working as a singer on the BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ series under the genius musical direction of Dave Arch, Jesse is the front man for the band Romances, The Legacy Showband, The Classic Rock Show, Boot Led Zeppelin and London's premier rock night - Rock The Boat.

Jesse also starred in Thriller Live in the West End and has toured Europe with the cult heavy-metal cinematic experience Gutterdämmerung.

With these projects Jesse has performed all over the world in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, The London Palladium, The Olympic Stadium - Munic

AND having started his singing career early was a finalist for Junior Eurovision with appearances in three of the Harry Potter movies!

Jesse's Website: www.jessesmithuk.com 

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Jesse’s favourite vocal performance Freddie Mercury singing Innuendo on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0?si=8380f4264b42464e 

VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB - Join the VocalScope Book Club: https://vocalscope.ac-page.com/book-club-sign-up 

VOCALSCOPE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vocalscope 

VOCALSCOPE Socials: @vocalscope

Tessa Niles first entered the music scene in 1981 and has since become one of the best known session singers of the past three decades. With her versatile voice and ability to blend within a myriad of styles, she has hundreds of recording credits and live appearances to her name, performing with some of the biggest names in the music industry. If you were listening to music during the 1980’s and 90’s then chances are that she performed live with some of your favourite artists and sang on your most loved tracks as she has worked with Bowie, Tina Turner, Sting, Duran Duran, Annie Lennox, Tears For Fears, The Pet Shop Boys,The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Tom Jones, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams.. In 2015 she turned author with her memoir titled ‘Backtrack’ - the voice behind music’s greatest stars. “She was described by Producer and Musical Director Steve Anderson as “the ultimate backing singer, not only because she does it with grace and excellence but because her knowledge of harmony is second to none. I fall in love with voices rarely - he says - but I fell in love with hers the moment we did our first session together and have been that way ever since.” Tessa's Website: www.tessaniles.com VOICE CHOICE Listen to Tessa’s favourite vocal performance Stevie Wonder singing All In Love Is Fair on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0?si=8380f4264b42464e VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB - Join the VocalScope Book Club: https://vocalscope.ac-page.com/book-club-sign-up VOCALSCOPE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vocalscope VOCALSCOPE Socials: @vocalscope

As voice coaches and singing teachers we are often reminded and acutely aware of ‘staying in our lane’ and whilst its fully appreciated and respected that vocal coaches and singing teachers are not (unless previously trained) psychotherapists or trauma specialists, this doesn’t mean that we won’t come across students, clients, choir members, performers or colleagues who are in the throes of a trauma response during our work together. The voice is an emotional tool and we can’t escape the fact that trauma is something that affects the voice, the learner, the performer, the human.

So, in today’s podcast, we are going to begin to discuss what it means to be “trauma-informed” in relation to voice use and our voice and rehearsal studios.

We’ll be discussing mental health and trauma-related factors in professional singers whilst we also considering the prevalence and impact of trauma, exploring ways for voice professionals and voice users to embody a trauma-informed approach - so that we can start to understand what feeling comfortable and confident in own roles and scopes of work might look like if were to become ‘trauma informed’.

My guest, Dr. Elisa Monti is a voice-specialized experimental psychologist with a PhD from The New School for Social Research.

Elisa is a certified Performance Wellness Therapist trained in the Montello Method for Performance Wellness and in Vocal Psychotherapy.

Her focus is the relationship between psychological trauma and different measures of voice. Her mission being to contribute to furthering our understanding of this relationship.

Elisa is a co-founder of the Voice and Trauma Research & Connection Group and she is also a co-Founder of Monti Bianchi Performance Wellness.

Recommended Further Reading & Training

In the VocalScope Book Club we read The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma By Bessel van der Kolk.

The Voice Study Centre is now offering an online Trauma-Informed Voice Professional (Level 4 Course) which Dr.Elisa Monti is leading https://voicestudycentre.com/trauma-informed-voice-professional-level-4-qualification-course/

Elisa's Websites: www.voiceandtrauma.com

www.montibianchi.com

mbpw.teachable.com

https://voicestudycentre.com/trauma-informed-voice-professional-level-4-qualification-course/

Elisa's Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/voice.and.trauma/

https://www.instagram.com/monti_bianchi_pw/

https://www.instagram.com/performancewellnessinc/

VOICE CHOICE Listen to Elisa’s favourite 'Simone Simons' from Epica singing Unleashed on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0?si=8380f4264b42464e

VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB - Join the VocalScope Book Club: https://vocalscope.ac-page.com/book-club-sign-up

VOCALSCOPE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vocalscope

VOCALSCOPE Socials: @vocalscope