Voice Connections for Life soon to launch
I’m excitedly blogging from the 8th floor of an apartment in downtown Shenzhen, China; in the foothills of lush green mountainous terrain.
I am pondering over the immanent launch of Voice Connections for Life, a business model that has come together as a result of a life of dedication to the age old art of vocalising. Right now, I am about to commence a three week tour of China, facilitating vocal seminars and singing sacred music. I have been coming to the Asia since 1993 teaching voice and singing, from Singapore and Hong Kong to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and everywhere in between.
There is a beauty in Asia that is unsurpassed. It is an inner beauty, an innocence, a beauty which seems to stem from a culture that has endured little intervention from the west – although that is rapidly changing. How refreshing it has been to traverse a country that previously lacked the seductions of MTV, Google, McDonalds and Coca Cola. How wonderful it would be, to live in the modern world and not have your mind polluted by consumerism. When we are left to our own thinking, to discover our own desires, the truth of our creative selves bubbles up and authenticity rises to the surface. The true voice is found!
In little over four weeks we will be launching Voice Connections for Life, a culmination of 30 years of teaching voice to people from all walks of life. What have I gleaned from the sum total of my experiences?
I think my conclusion is that everyone has a voice. It may not have manifested externally and as profoundly as some, and that voice may have been prevented from the full spectrum of expression for some reason or another. But one thing is sure – the desire of human beings to express themselves wells up from inside from the day we are born. In speech, in prose, in poetry, ramblings, conversation or in song. When probed it is clear that each person has a story. A unique and powerful story.
Some may have never explored what their relationship with their voice actually is, but when asked to inquire, inevitably a beautiful story arises. A story of how one’s voice relates to the world around us. A story of how relationships affect our voice. A story of how our upbringing has affected our voice. A story of how our hopes and our dreams bear witness to our voice. How the workings of our minds determine our tone, our range, our power. As energy follows thought – voice follows our thinking, however calm or crazy, as sure as night follows day.
