Short Courses & Events / Archive

The Vocal Health Challenges for Actors and Singers!

Thursday 23rd October 2025, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)

Friday 24th October 2025, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)

Vocal health principles are inextricably and symbiotically linked with singing and acting voice pedagogy: Good vocal health allows the singer and actor to more easily and effectively achieve their technical and artistic goals, and good teaching reinforces vocal technique that diminishes the risk of vocal injury.

The singing world now recognizes that singers and actors are in fact vocal athletes who are testing the limits of the human voice, which places them at higher risk for vocal injury than those who do not have comparable vocal demands. The unfortunate reality, however is that many singers and actors have limited understanding of basic vocal anatomy, physiology and acoustics and may be underinformed or misinformed about critical health information regarding the care and maintenance of their primary instrument. 

21st century singing and acting teachers face unique and challenging demands and opportunities relative to instructing their students. On the one hand, traditional instruction is expected to enable the student to establish a solid vocal technique, to gain insight into the specific musical, stylistic, artistic, and linguistic demands of a given genre, to gain an understanding of various career pathways and the necessary life-style adjustments and in many cases, to learn to effectively utilize amplification systems so critical to numerous performance settings. We now also recognize the necessity for singers and actors to understand how their instruments work, how to take care of their voices, and what to do when something goes wrong. Singing and acting teachers are indeed on the front lines of vocal health.

Course topics include:  

  • The teacher as a model of vocal health
  • Foundations of vocal hygiene
  • Vocal pacing for actors and singers
  • Medical factors and the voice including upper respiratory infections, pulmonary conditions, allergies, laryngopharyngeal reflux, long COVID, musculoskeletal injuries, temporomandibular joint disorder, and others.
  • The singing teacher’s role in identification of dysphonia and making appropriate referrals to the vocal health team.
  • Medical voice evaluation for singers and actors
  • What singers and actors should know about medical, surgical, and behavioral treatment of voice disorders.

🏷️ Price £50 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available

Leda Scearce

Soprano Leda Scearce has been featured in leading roles with the National Opera Company, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Long Leaf Opera Festival, Triangle Opera...

Sorry, this is an archived short course...

We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.

Level One Certificate in Accents and Phonetics
Monday 12th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Tuesday 13th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Wednesday 14th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Thursday 15th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Tuesday 20th January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Wednesday 21st January 2026
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
(London Time)

Level One Certificate in Accents and Phonetics

Louisa Morgan

Are you a voice, acting, or singing coach looking to expand your expertise and add accents and phonetics to your teaching repertoire? This 6-session course covers essential topics such as articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and ethical approaches to accent and dialect coaching. By the end of this course, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and practical skills to start to bring phonetics and accent coaching into your coaching and provide more comprehensive support to your clients.

Emerging and Developing Voice: Singing and Speech
Monday 12th January 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)

Emerging and Developing Voice: Singing and Speech

Karen Brunssen

How does the singing voice influence the speaking voice? How does the speaking voice influence the singing voice? When is there a disparate relationship between the two? Can they help each other? Can one harm the other? How can we use them positively in the voice studio. During this short course we will consider the voice as we sing and as we speak. The acquisition of language is a very interesting journey from birth through old age. We will broach the topics of “lexical” which refers to learning words, and “semantic” which is how we use words in the context of language.

Perfectionism: A Theoretical & Clinical Overview
Monday 12th January 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

Perfectionism: A Theoretical & Clinical Overview

Dr David Juncos

What exactly is meant when we label ourselves or someone we know a perfectionist? It is a good to be this way? Or are you setting yourself up for failure? Can a performance psychologist or a other performance-related practitioner help you if you’re a perfectionist? In this short course, you will learn how perfectionism is defined according to popular models in clinical psychology, and whether it is maladaptive or adaptive. You will also learn how perfectionism impacts on music performance anxiety, in addition to other areas of importance for performing musicians, like work-related stress and burnout, and procrastination with one’s practice.