CMFAA User Profile

My approach to teaching is organic and natural, based on vocal technique, both in the voice studio or the choral rehearsal. I begin and end with the making of music, allowing the intention and need to express and communicate to drive the mechanism, to engage the technique naturally.

I demystify the art and technique of singing by analyzing, explaining, providing tools and strategies for breathing, voice production, support, focus. I find similarities to other disciplines--playing a sport, dancing, martial arts, playing an instrument, painting--to make the experience more relevant, more personal and familiar to the student.

I  urge my students to better themselves, and equally constantly I assure them and encourage them. I strive to challenge more advanced singers and encourage beginners, always with patience and respect, empowering them towards a higher level of musical awareness, understanding, and competence.  I take a creative approach to problem-solving; I am a "troubleshooter" and often devise exercises to address particular and specific issues--tuning, voice production, blending, balance, tension release, rhythmic and ensemble problems.

First and foremost, I like to provide a safe place for singers to try new things, to allow themselves to be vulnerable, to feel free to experiment with their voices, to allow themselves to make mistakes, and even to not make a great sound at times, to find what is available to them in terms of colour, range, dynamic and expressive capabilities in this amazing instrument that is the human voice.

I have a boundless love for music and music-making and I have been told that my enthusiasm for music is contagious. I believe singing is a right and that all humans can, should - and must - sing. Its an absolute necessity for our well-being - emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual.

I have been featured as a soloist with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Berkshire Choral Festival, Symphony Nova Scotia, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra, and the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra, to name a few.  

I have also been guest soloist with Luminous Voices (Calgary), Players and Singers, Erato Ensemble, Vancouver’s Sonic Boom Festival, the Monteverdi Symposium, a Company of Instruments Baroque Orchestra, Vivaldi Chamber Choir, Vancouver Latin Music Festival, and SummerChor. I have sung professionally with the Vancouver Chamber Choir for the past 27 years, first under the direction of Jon Washburn, and the last 3 years under our new AD, Kari Turunen.

My opera experience include the title role in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula with Opera Appassionata, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Eugenia in the concert premiere of Vancouver composer Lloyd Burritt’s Miracle Flight 571.

As a recitalist, I champion repertoire which highlights my Latin cultural background, and Yiddish and Sephardic ancestry. This past summer I had the pleasure of sharing the Tango tradition of my native Argentina at Tango, Flamenco and Wine, presented by Latincouver and Carnaval del Sol, and then was able to combine my varied culture heritage at Festival Judío, presented by the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture.