I thought it might be helpful to prospective patients and students to see how our interests and experiences might overlap, so here’s my story:
As with many performers, my involvement with singing, music, and theatre began in my school days. A Chorus Line and Pippin were the first musical theatre scores I memorized word for word, listening to my aunt’s LPs. In high school I began to sing classical and choral music and decided to study voice in college, earning my Bachelor of Music degree from The Catholic University of America in D.C. My next move was to The Manhattan School of Music for a master’s degree, but after two semesters I realized that I wasn’t passionate enough about operatic and art song literature to pursue a career in classical voice. I continued to sing but found a job working in a classroom in a Montessori school. I stayed on at the Montessori school for 5 years, which gave me a first-hand and up-close look at the demands of classroom teaching.
At the Montessori school, it just so happened that the teacher I was assisting was studying to earn a master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology. Listening to her talk about her coursework and clinical training, I realized that Speech Pathology might be an option for me as well, one that would allow me to be of service and stay close to teaching and education. It wasn’t until after I began my research that I discovered that the evaluation and treatment of voice disorders was a part of the field. After spending a few years completing my prerequisites, another stroke of luck (a significant other was headed to the music school) landed me at Indiana University, Bloomington for my master’s degree in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, which happened to have a Voice Clinic onsite and a course on The Care of the Professional Voice. Having the top notch I.U. School of Music across the sidewalk gave me the opportunity to study Vocal Pedagogy and continue voice lessons, and a class in the theatre department reminded me how much I loved acting and gave me my first taste of Kristin Linklater’s acting voice work.
Before I’d been out of school for a year, I got the phone call that would change the course of my professional and personal life. It was an offer to interview for a position on the Voice Team of the internationally renowned otolaryngologist Dr. Robert Sataloff (whose Care of the Professional Voice text I studied at I.U.). Two trips to Philadelphia later, I joined the Voice Team as a voice therapist and received intensive training and experience with a broad range of patients, including scores of teachers, music educators, singers, and actors. It was there that I was also trained to utilize my skills as a Singing Voice Specialist, working with the singing voice to help patients recover from a range of injuries and vocal complaints. And, where I met the colleague to whom I am now married. Philly has been good to me! Being mentored by Dr. Sataloff and my colleagues on the Voice Team gave me the experience and depth of understanding of voice that I still rely on today.
After 5 years of practicing voice therapy full-time, I began to miss being a performer. I became aware of a deep desire to study acting more seriously, and I knew I had to rebalance my life. I left my full time position with the Voice Team and headed up to NYC to study acting at the Actors Studio Drama School. Since that year, I’ve joined Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA, acted professionally, begun my own private practice to continue caring for patients and teaching students, consulted with and trained other therapists for Philadelphia Ear, Nose, and Throat Associates, and earned an M.F.A. in Classical Acting from the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University.
Most importantly for my students and clients, over the past 20 years I’ve continued to look for opportunities to be the student. Voice conferences, Motor Learning Theory, Estill Voice Training, certification in Fitzmaurice Voicework, and voice lessons with master teachers provide many of the resources I draw on in my work. The speakers and singers who share their voices with me provide the inspiration.
