"Fixing voices is one of my specialties".

Brigitte Schweizer has studied and taught at the renowned Schola Cantorum, Rue St. Jacques, in Paris, among other places Voice training and singing in Basel. Anyone who wants to learn to sing properly, has voice problems or is generally interested in the physiology of the voice, is right with her. Following, she describes her career to us and explains what the music and especially singing means to her and what she particularly emphasizes when teaching.

Music is for me a part of being human, it means for me joy of life, movement and rhythm. It allows me to be able to convert the experienced or moods in sounds. Singing can be wonderfully liberating, good for the hygiene of the soul and generally very healthy.

Since childhood I have sung in the children's choirs of my father and later in the school choir of the high school. Fortunately, we had a very good music teacher there who had a great idea about voice training. I took my first private lessons with the stepdaughter of my music teacher and then at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz. There I also began my studies in the opera studio and in the lied class. I finally achieved my concert maturity at the Dreilinden Conservatory in Lucerne. The finishing touch was given by studying style and interpretation at the famous Schola Cantorum, Rue St. Jacques, in Paris as well as in various international master classes.

Singing is my life and my vocation, without which I could no longer imagine my life. This includes being an artist as well as teaching and imparting singing and correct voice application.

I owe my knowledge regarding voice physiology to my methodology teacher from the Mainz Conservatory, my vocal coaches, my current singing teacher and various other singing teachers, breathing and body therapists, repetiteurs and conductors. Thus I quickly learned about the complexity of singing and today I try to integrate different components when teaching. These include, for example, breath, body, soul, spirit and, of course, the current condition of a student. When it comes to singing, we all have the same "instruments", namely the larynx and vocal cords. These can be used in different ways. In this context, incorrect breathing, i.e. singing with overpressure (press breathing), too much chest voice and pulling it up too high (incorrect belting), a repertoire that is too heavy or insufficient singing in can lead to significant vocal problems. These can be remedied by special training. With breathing exercises and body work one finds a natural support and can correct a voice-damaging press breathing by reduction of the volume. Correct belting is learned through resonance and not with overpressure. I am also happy to advise students on choosing the right repertoire and, if desired, transpose the respective pieces into a suitable key. However, if the voice has already been damaged, it is a matter of "repairing" it, which is one of my specialties. Even vocal cord nodules can be "sung away" with the right exercises and a lot of patience. I tailor the lessons to the student's needs, of course: I first ask the student to bring me two pieces, one that has already been practiced and is mastered and another that one is having trouble with. Following this, I take a close look at what the student needs to work on and put together a personalized warm-up (breathing, body work and vocal development). Laying a healthy foundation at the beginning is very important to me. Correct breathing and balancing the registers are important topics. Later, depending on the style of music, other special techniques are added. Another important part of my lessons are different interpretation techniques such as storytelling (I am also a trained actress), facial expressions, gestures, or movement. Sometimes we are not aware that the diaphragm or even the whole body reacts much faster to emotions than to technical instructions. That one therefore also integrates these into the lessons is natural for me.

I look forward to curious students who either want to work on their voices or need voice correction.

To the profile of Brigitte Schweizer