Angela Caine AGSM LRAM

Qualifications, Experience and Associations

• AGSM in piano and LRAM in singing with scholarship year to study opera (Guildhall School of Music and Drama).
• Qualified teacher with thirty years experience in the teaching of singing and voice in schools, training colleges and universities.
• Three year full-time study of The Alexander Technique at Fellside Alexander School, Kendal.
• Member of the Musicians' Union.
• Member of Cranio Group, an international organisation of clinicians (including dentists, orthodontists, chiropractors, osteopaths and physiotherapists) to promote the understanding, function and management of the whole body.
• Member of The British Society for the Study of Cranio-mandibular Disorders (BSSCMD),a study group promoting the multidisciplanary treatment of dental and structural problems.
• Speaker at International Conferences introducing Voice Gym concepts to Dentists, orthodontists, osteopaths, chiropractors.

Angela's Teaching Experience

• Teaching of singing and music across all age groups in Warwickshire schools (1960-70).
• Voice tutor and singing teacher in further education at University of Warwick, University of East Anglia, Highgate Alexander School and University of Southampton (1972-1999).
• In-service teacher training on voice for Warwickshire and Norfolk schools (1978-1992).
• Performance Workshops in association with professional singers, musicians and recording Artists.
• Workshops on voice development and maintenance for teachers throughout the UK.
• Training courses and workshops on voice and presentation skills for various companies and professional organisations including Law South, House of Colour, Southampton and Hampshire County Councils, London Gay Men's Choir, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, HSCC and the NHS.

Angela's Performing Experience

• Professional operatic roles including Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro (Mozart); Pamina in the Magic Flute (Mozart); Adina in l'Elisir d'Amore (Donizetti); Elvira in Don Giovanni (Mozart) and Elektra in Idomineo (Mozart);
• Principal Soprano in Oratorio including the C minor Mass and Requiem Mass (Mozart); Requiem Mass (Brahms); Mass in C (Beethoven); The Creation (Haydn); Gloria (Poulenc); Judas Maccabeas and The Messiah (Handel); The Magnificat, St Matthew Passion and St John Passion (Bach); Messe Solennelle (Rossini) and Elijah (Mendelssohn).
• Appearances in cabaret, shows and concerts involving all musical styles, including lead roles in musical shows, including Annie Get Your Gun; The King and I; Glamorous Night; Kismet; South Pacific; The Dancing Years.
• Has directed and produced various operas in schools and colleges, including The Telephone (Menotti); Amahl and the Night Visitors (Menotti); Hansel and Gretel (Humperdink); The Impressario (Mozart); HMS Pinafore and The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan).

Research, Publications and Presentations

• For the last fifteen years Angela has researched the problems of professional voices in performance. Her research has resulted in a number of articles and presentations addressing development of vocal potential, performance stress and the effect of both inappropriate dentistry and inappropriate training on performers' voices.  She has run workshops and presentations on the subject at international conferences including
  • International Conference on Health and the Musician, University of York, UK, 23-27 March, 1997.
  • 2nd Pan European Voice Conference (PEVOCII), University of Regensburg, Germany, 29-31 August 1997.
  • 3rd Barcelona Orthodontic Meeting on "Multidisciplinary Treatment in Orthodontics", Catalonian Dental Association, Barcelona, Spain, 13-15 March 2003.
  • 9th International Symposium for Facial Growth Guidance, UK, 6-9 May 2004.
  • 3rd Annual Symposium of the British Society for the Study of Craniomandibular Disorders, London, UK, 20-21 May 2005.
  • Inaugral meeting of the International Functional Association, Paris, 8-9 November 2007.

Television and Radio Appearances

• Concerts with BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, BBC third programme, 1958.
• The Health Show with Angela Rippon, BBC radio 5, 18 July 1991.
• Woman's Hour, BBC radio 4, 2 September 1991.
• This Morning, ITV, 31 March 1992 and 9 November 1993.
• Summer Scene, BBC1, 14 August 1992.
• Various appearances on Julian Clegg's Breakfast Programme on BBC Radio Solent, March to May 2000, to train (on air) the Radio Solent Music Live Choir.
• "Would like to meet", first shown on BBC3, 27 July 2003 and repeated on BBC2 in November. Angela puts Julian Small through the Voice Gym course to improve his prospects.

All Very Impressive, Isn't It?

But somewhere in the middle of this apparently successful career I discovered that the voice training I had received to fit me for this life of singing covered only the music I had to sing: I knew nothing about the voice itself.  When I began to have voice problems in my 30's I didn't know why they were happening. I sought help from teachers of singing and voice therapists. Nothing they suggested was of any help and they did not seem to know why these problems were happening either! My voice continued to deteriorate for the next five years. Eventually I could not sing at all and it was then suggested that I should concentrate on the teaching of singing because of my extensive knowledge of the singing repertoire and its performance.

Wait a minute!  If I couldn’t speak German would anyone ask me to teach someone else to speak it?  If I can't sing, what am I doing teaching singing? That was the moment that the Voice and Body Centre was conceived - out of desperation of a failed singer, by hope of a multidsciplinary approach to the function of this instrument I could not bear to lose. It soon became obvious that the training I had received was at least 50% of my voice problem. I can now sing again, I know why I lost my voice and that I will never lose it again, but I have had to throw away my early voice training and re-programme the muscles controlling the instrument according to natural anatomical function. The story is in the Devil Within.

In order to put together this unique voice work I have worked across the barriers of many different disciplines. This includes ...

• Working with professional singers whose voice problems have defeated everyone else.
• Working with children with motor difficulties in the clinic of a cranial osteopath to discover the effect of rhythm on posture and vocal response.
• Attending courses on birth trauma, primitive reflexes and on the selection and fitting of orthodontic appliances, to discover their effect on the young developing singer.
• Working in dental clinics with children whose severe tongue thrust threatens to negate tooth repositioning. I gave these children tongue exercises which included whole body balance, stretch and rhythm.

This work opened a field of research hitherto totally ignored by voice therapists and singing teachers. It also demonstrated to me that singing, and having a good voice, is fundamentally important to everyone. The results have enabled me to expose the dangers of ignoring functional anatomy, dentistry and skeletal misalignment. I have now established a multidisciplinary network, involving cranial chiropractors, osteopaths and dentists who are also 'voice aware'.

Some of the things I have learned from a multi-disciplinary approach to voice

• The effect on your voice if a dentist extracts some of your teeth.
• That early training in ballet will give you a ‘turnout’ that programmes muscles controlling the diaghragm. Combined singing and dancing could then be a problem for you.
• That tongue position is vital in the development of natural nose breathing and overriding this natural system with a forward tongue posture could lead to hyperventilation every time you sing.

Four books have influenced my teaching more than all others and non are singing books

• Use your Head  by Tony Buzan, because it teaches you the importance of the right brain (BBC Books, UK: ISBN 0-563-21082-6)
• The Human Vocal Tract - Anatomy, Function, Development, Evolution by Edmund Crelin (Vantage Press, New York: ISBN 0-533-06967-X): dedicated by Crelin to his graduate students at Yale: "In order to advise them, I was often compelled to broaden my scientific horizons by going beyond my immediate area of expertise"
• The Dental Distress Syndrome by Alred Fonder (Medical-Dental Arts, Rock Falls, Illinois)
• Reflexes, Learning and Behaviour - a window into the child's mind by Sally Goddard (Fern Ridge Press, Oregon: ISBN 0-9615332).

The book that says it all - The Devil Within

This year - 2006 - I have finally put the whole story of my voice loss and recovery together in 'The Devil Within,' available from this website. It tells this story using prose, poems and photographs. Read it to discover the real power of the voice to influence your life.

"...There seemed to be no one who recognised my struggle, who could see what I was going through to sing. What had been the best part of my life and the place where I excelled was now agony. I was terrified every time I sang in public, but still I was invited to take on all kinds of work because I had a reputation for accuracy and reliability and for having a lovely voice, good to listen to. I gave everything I could to please, even with the trembling jaw and the tense and frightened body and the audience obviously appreciated that I gave my all. But the cost was high. I began to get sore throats and became quite obsessed with keeping quiet before performances 'to rest my voice'..."

£9.99 from this website