(Limelight). The Singer's Companion combines the author's extensive research on hundreds of professional singers' and singing teachers' books with 30 years of personal teaching experience. The book concentrates on traditional vocal and artistic development, as employed at the most renowned universities and conservatories. At the same time, the presentation is extremely practical and accessible. The language is simple, and minimal space is given to theory. As each aspect of good singing and artistry is explained, enlightening quotations from dozens of the best singers and teachers, such as Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti, Eileen Farrell, Manuel Garcia, and Emma Seiler, help the singer to grasp the concept. The building of the vocal instrument and the artist is the focus. Topics include stance, breathing, phonation, resonance, range, health, choosing a teacher, vocal exercises, musicianship, pronunciation and diction, interpretation, performance, and selecting material. Many illustrative diagrams appear in the text. The book includes exercise sheets, sample songs, and an illustrative CD. Any singer, from the would-be professional to the diligent choir member, can benefit from this easy-to-use, thorough companion.

Ranging from medieval music to Madonna and beyond, this book covers in detail the many aspects of the voice. The volume is divided into four broad areas. Popular Traditions begins with an overview of singing traditions in world music and continues with aspects of rock, rap and jazz. The Voice in the Theatre includes both opera singing from the beginnings to the present day and twentieth-century stage and screen entertainers. Choral Music and Song features a history of the art song, essential hints on singing in a larger choir, the English cathedral tradition and a history of the choral movement in the United States. The final substantial section on performance practices ranges from the voice in the Middle Ages and the interpretation of early singing treatises to contemporary vocal techniques, ensemble singing, the teaching of singing, children's choirs, and a comprehensive exposition of vocal acoustics.

A unique singers' and musicians' companion, a go-to manual for help and support, a keepsake, a reference book - concept curated, compiled, and edited by two experienced, Australian based, arts supporters. Christine Sullivan is an international singer, recording artist, performer, and teacher, Monika Roleff is an arts worker, word and arts festival co-ordinator, writer, and author. Both are voice enthusiasts with a rich ancestral heritage in the field. The vision was to pull together a valuable tool in book format, using a selection of questions, anecdotes, quotes, and words of wisdom, directly from professional artists, technicians, musicians, and singers. The project provides an inspirational platform of experience-based advice for aspiring students, teachers, arts/music organisations, and the general public, interested in the life and journey of the singer. Primarily, it's a gift of words of wisdom from industry elders, and emerging talents from different musical generations, genres, and age groups, to be used by the reader as an industry guide. This is the first edition. Updated editions to follow.Review - Leon Gettler - Freelance Journalist - Arts - The Melbourne Age/Herald Sun - The Singers Companion - Christine Sullivan and Monika Roleff."This is a massively ambitious book. It gives the perspectives of singers and performers, crossing all ages and geographies. It gives them the platform to speak about their personal experiences in the global music/entertainment industry. Each singer and performer writes in their own style. Every artist has their own story and this tells us some of their crazy adventures. With questions and answers, they were asked about their histories, their influences, their approaches to music. They give tips to aspiring singers and talk about their own approach to their art. Each is different, every artist has their own unique story. Reading this book and it makes you feel you are reading about a giant family. Indeed, many came to their art because of their families. Like Monika Roleff and her paternal grandparents, grandparents and parents, Ruth Adele's parents, Susannah Coleman-Brown's father who was a poet singer/songwriter and artist, Mez Evans' maternal and paternal grandparents who were great singers and musicians, and her mother was a renowned opera singer. For Justine Jones, it was her grandfather and father who was a drummer. While a lot of them share common ground and influences, they all have their own unique perspectives. Bridgette Allen's influences are Shakespeare - for perspective of poetic prose, Maria Callas for relative pitch re: mezzo soprano, Carmen McRae for lyrical gesticulation, and Duke Ellington for an overview of band etiquette. Nichaud Fitzgibbon talks about learning from Mark Murphy, Sheila Jordan, Tina May and Kurt Elling and working with Pharoah Saunders at Ronnie Scott's. Joe Chindamo, pianist, who has worked so many great singers like Dame Shirley Bassey Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, OliviaNewton-John and Sofie von Otter, says singers and musical performers are one. Jazz Singer Linda Marks from Boston USA talks about the challenges facing singers: 'In our streaming era, if I spent ten thousand dollars to make a quality professional album, it is not clear how to make the financial investment back. It means I need to work two professions: one which can support me financially, and music. Our society does not recognize the work, time, and heart/soul a musician must invest to do their craft, and the compensation systems are not designed to pay professional performing singer/songwriters a fair wage.' Which results in some solid advice from Anita Harris: 'Don't. Work. For. Nothing.' All up an important book for singers and performers. It's full of insights and advice letting everyone know they are part of a global community. That is where the real value of this book lies."

The Singing Body - A Vocalist's Companion is testimony to the fact that singing is a highly complicated act of coordination. Every single part of the body plays an important role in the act of singing, and those parts which don't function properly can hinder it. Being fully aware of one's physical functioning is an essential tool in intensifying the constructive role that the body plays. The work begins with posture, the necessary physical warm-up, widening the repertoire of movement, relaxing and strengthening muscles, breathing exercises, relaxation and the sense of balance-all of which enhance the singer's abilities. Thereafter, the book addresses topics such as movement and presence on the stage before an audience. Physical action during singing is, in essence, individual but Iris Goren's work is often conducted in a master-class, ensuring every singer gets individual attention as well as the opportunity to perform before the class.There are suggestions for diagnosing specific problems encountered by singers as they work on specific pieces. This is a highly-focused approach which works with each individual singer or performer in his/her own right. It also includes line drawings which give a very precise visual representation of the concepts and exercises proposed in the text, thus facilitating their use and understanding. There are also some specific innovations: the combination of body-work with the physical act of singing, which characterizes Goren's work with singers; and sections such as "Sensing and action according to body weight" and "Observation, listening and touch" provide diagnostic tools for understanding the problems of singers which occur during performance.The book is organized into chapters which introduce fundamental concepts, such as breathing, posture and assessment, each of which is subdivided into specific topics within the principle of the chapter. For example: Chapter 1, Posture and Stance, includes sections on grounding, physical warm-up, muscle tone, and more. Information and exercises come together to demonstrate the technique proposed and ensure fullest possible comprehension of the work.The Singing Body is distinctive in that it is not based on a particular theory of body-work (like Alexander, or Feldenkrais), but rather encompasses several decades of intensive experience of working with a multi-disciplinary approach. It takes the most important elements from a range of theories and techniques which have been found to be most relevant to this work with singers. Other writers have separated body-work from singing; but it is precisely by combining the two and working in this way that singers are helped to work correctly on the individual body and voice.

"The Singer’s Companion" provides both beginning and advanced students of singing with a basic, reliable, and readable introduction to the many issues focusing on training and maintaining a healthy voice. It covers all the fundamental issues faced by vocalists in all styles of music, including how to find a good teacher, work with a score, audition, and perform. Stohrer has written an essential text for students of singing, offering up-to-date, accurate, and accessible information that will be invaluable to singers and their teachers.

Beginning several generations before Schubert, the Lied first appears as domestic entertainment. In the century that follows it becomes one of the primary modes of music-making. By the time German song comes to its presumed conclusion with Richard Strauss's 1948 Vier letzte Lieder, this rich repertoire has moved beyond the home and keyboard accompaniment to the symphony hall. This is a 2004 introductory chronicle of this fascinating genre. In essays by eminent scholars, this Companion places the Lied in its full context - at once musical, literary, and cultural - with chapters devoted to focal composers as well as important issues, such as the way in which the Lied influenced other musical genres, its use as a musical commodity, and issues of performance. The volume is framed by a detailed chronology of German music and poetry from the late 1730s to the present and also contains a comprehensive bibliography.

"The Singer’s Companion" provides both beginning and advanced students of singing with a basic, reliable, and readable introduction to the many issues focusing on training and maintaining a healthy voice. It covers all the fundamental issues faced by vocalists in all styles of music, including how to find a good teacher, work with a score, audition, and perform. Stohrer has written an essential text for students of singing, offering up-to-date, accurate, and accessible information that will be invaluable to singers and their teachers.