Finding a Voice | Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Discover Guildhall

Tour the School

Walk the School with Guildhall students

During my time here, I organised an international conference based around my subject involving delegates from 4 continents

Emily Baines
DMus, ‘Mechanical Musical Instruments as a Source for Historical Performance’

The research community at Guildhall is a really interesting place to be

Stefania Donini
PhD

I found it very beneficial to take a break from a busy teaching career to think and reflect on my teaching value, principle and strategies

Yushan Li
PGCert Performance Teaching

Studying at Guildhall is really cool because you are in a setting where the arts are valued by an entire community

Natasha Mbwana
BA Performance & Creative Enterprise

The projects we work on are real - we are in effect constantly getting work experience

Laurie Lumley
BA Video Design for Live Performance

Guildhall is an institution that knows it has to be connected to the outside world - that's the key thing. It's not a bubble. It has roots in the city and in the world.

Jonathan Ferrucci
Artist Diploma Piano

One minute you could be playing in the Guildhall Studio Orchestra with jazz musicians, the next you could be playing in the opera pit, then the next minute you'll be with actors doing the musical and then playing a symphony in the orchestra.

Millie Ashton
BMus Violin

I had access to people I would never have been able to meet as a young composer starting out.

Na'ama Zisser
Doctoral Composer in Residence

I knew about the fantastic tutoring and resources, but the friendly and stimulating environment clinched it for me.

Eden Lonsdale
BMus Composition

I had the opportunity to play percussion with the Guildhall Studio Orchestra which gave me the chance to learn from, and play alongside, amazing senior players, as well as to perform with the incredible Liane Carroll.

Dave Adsett
BMus Jazz Drums

At Guildhall, they don't hold your hand, but they're going to push you to become the actor that you want to be.

Daniel Adeosun
BA Acting

It's the scale of productions that really makes Guildhall stand out. It gets to the point where you think, wow, this is massive. In other places, you just wouldn't have that opportunity to learn on the job.

Sian Clare
BA Technical Theatre Arts (Costume)

Finding a Voice

Directed by Dr. Karen Wise
Co-investigator Prof Andrea Halpern of Bucknell University, USA

Nearly 20% of the British population call themselves 'tone deaf', and probably many more would call themselves 'non-singers', holding negative thoughts about their own singing ability and voice. Against the view that 'anyone can sing', non-singers hold a powerful narrative that says 'you can either sing or you can't - and I can't'.

Starting in April 2016, Finding a Voice is a 33-month AHRC-funded project focusing on people who don't sing, engaging them in specially designed programmes. It will provide an understanding of the journeys adult non-singers take in learning to sing, and the ways in which they can be supported, by combining psychological, educational and artistic research.

The project will investigate the best ways of helping non-singers engage in meaningful participation in singing and improve their skills, and to show what their developmental journeys look like.

In a first phase (September 2016 to June 2017), the project worked with a group of people who considered themselves non-singers over the period of one academic year, engaging them in individual and group sessions to track both their progress and effective teaching practice.

A second phase will focus on the development of an app to train auditory imagery - the ability to imagine sounds in the 'mind's ear' - and assess the effect of this on singing.

"I'd just like to say on behalf of all of us who participated, it was tough for all of us [] but thanks to people like Jenny, like Lucy and a great big thanks to Karen [] I think we've all come a long way in the last three years and of course [] we really want to say that all our lives have changed. Four of us standing here, five of us, all go to the London Symphony Orchestra Community Choir and a number of us are also in other choirs in addition to that, so it's fundamentally changed the way we all live our lives now and we're all very, very grateful".