Patricia McMahon has earned a reputation over many years as a singer, teacher and vocal coach. She has taken many masterclasses, including visits to the Royal College of Music in London; the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester; the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff; Samling Masterclasses and Samling Academy; the Conservatorium van Amsterdam; Portugal; and Lake Placid Institute International Voice Seminar, USA. She has adjudicated and examined throughout the UK and as far afield as Hong Kong and Singapore.

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During her earlier career as a soprano, Pat specialised in concert, recital and oratorio work, frequently recording for BBC. Her profession took her to Israel, Aix en Provence, Norway, St. Petersburg and Brussels. She performed with the English Chamber Orchestra in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Barbican and St. John’s, Smith Square in London. In Scotland she sang frequently with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and appeared often at the Edinburgh International Festival.

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As well as fulfilling professional engagements, Pat taught singing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for nearly forty years and received a Fellowship in March 2000 and an Honorary Doctorate in July 2013. She is still very much sought after by students at home and abroad.

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Dr Ron Morris, Speech Therapist, Audiologist and Counter-Tenor, initially graduated from the University of Queensland in 1985 with an Honours degree in Speech Therapy.  Ron also holds a Performer’s Certificate from Trinity College London and in 2001 he completed a Masters of Music Studies (Vocal Performance) at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. As part of that degree Ron undertook additional vocal studies in London with Mrs Janice Chapman OAM as well as studying Accent Method Breathing with Ms Dinah Harris and Mrs Ingrid Rugheimer.  Ron holds a PhD in music for a study examining the use of Accent Method Breathing with singers.  Ron's new book on Accent Method based on his PHD 'If In Doubt Breath Out' was released in 2016.

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Ron is in demand both nationally and internationally as a speaker at conferences, workshops and summer schools having presented on numerous occasions for Classical Voice Training, British Voice Association, to the Pan European Voice Conference (PEVOC), the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS) and to the Association of Teachers of Singing (AOTOS) in the UK.  Ron has been a guest tutor at the Aberystwyth Music Fest and Summer School as well as working with choristers from St Paul’s Cathedral London, Canterbury Cathedral and King’s College Cambridge.  Ron also works annually within the Vocal Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where his work is focussed on breathing, articulation and vocal pedagogy. He has recently obtained a Lectureship in Vocal Pedagogy and Health at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music Griffith University.

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Ron continues to sing regularly both as a member of St John’s Cathedral Choir (Brisbane) and the Opera Queensland Chorus. and as a soloist in oratorio, opera and sacred music.  Recent engagements include the Durufle Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Handel’s Dixit Dominus.

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Linda Hutchison is a singing teacher, lecturer and vocal rehabilitation coach involved in the multi-disciplinary world of voice.

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In her teaching practice, she works with a wide range of professionals. She is a member of the Vocal Staff at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she works with both the singers and actors. She has taught on the Royal Academy of Music’s Postgraduate Musical Theatre Course and she is an international guest tutor for the Irish College of Music Theatre, Dublin.

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Her work in voice clinics began in 1997, which is when she first started working with the Accent Method. For five years she was a member of the Sidcup Voice Clinic at Queen Mary’s Hospital in the UK and now is the Vocal Rehabilitation Coach at the Lewisham Voice Clinic, University Hospital Lewisham, London.

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Alongside workshops and masterclasses, Linda gives presentations dealing with the anatomy, physiology and care of the voice. She has created and directed professional development courses which balance the science of the voice with artistic freedom.

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As a performer, her operatic career started at the age of fourteen when she sang the role of Belinda in an open air production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. She began her professional career as a principal soprano of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, later freelancing in solo operatic, concert and oratorio work.  A biography of her, Enchantment, Surely, was published in 2010 in Tony Joseph’s D’Oyly Carte Personalities series (Bunthorne Books, 2010).

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Linda has been President of the British Voice Association, having been for many years a member of its Education Working Party and has served on the Council of the UK’s Association of Teachers of Singing.

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With Dr Ron Morris she co-authored ‘If in doubt, Breath out!’, a book on breathing and support for singing based on the Accent Method.

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Gary Coward studied singing at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Then followed a career in singing which was continuous, if unspectacular, for nearly forty years. This involved a wide range of genres including principal rôles with the smaller opera companies; parts and covers for English Touring Opera, Scottish Opera and English National Opera; concerts, recitals, ENO chorus, consort and session work; and forays into lighter music, including Old Time Music Hall. This, combined with a lifelong passion and the study of all things vocal, developed into a career in teaching and was kick-started by his work with Gerald Finley in helping him through a mid-career transition. 

Since then, a large student base has evolved, made up of a younger generation of singers who want to start their career with a firm technical grounding, ensuring a vocally trouble-free professional life; and those in mid-career who feel that the mechanics and reliability of their instrument are not what they used to be.

Many of his students have been prizewinners in competitions including the Ferrier, Tauber, Cesti, Royal Overseas League and Cardiff Singer of the World. And thus far in 2018, they have won the LBS Bach Singers Competition, Oxford Lieder Prize and London Handel Competition. They have attended the National Opera Studio and the Young Artists Programmes at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Marseille and Stuttgart, and are frequent performers in the most prestigious international opera houses and concert halls.

His students mainly come from the UK, but there are those who travel from the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Spain, Germany, and Austria on a regular basis. He is also a principal study professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and teaches on the Jette Parker Young Artists' Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Amongst the people he teaches and continues to do so are: Gerald Finley, Jonathan Lemalu, Jacques Imbrailo, Rebecca de Pont Davies,  Henry Waddington,Linda Richardson, Marcus Farnsworth, Thomas Hobbs.

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Romanian soprano, Manuela Ochakovski's singing career spans over 20 years.  She sang prominent roles in renowned opera houses and concert halls, particularly in Germany. In addition to her performances, she has always been a vocal teacher. After building her vocal studio Manuela Ochakovski’s career is now focused entirely on giving singing lessons to professionals and amateurs and to coaching professional singers. 

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Manuela graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Iasi (Romania). Following her studies, she was employed from 1986 to 1991 as an opera singer at the State Opera of Timisoara (Romania) where she sang the roles of Queen of the night, Gilda, Olympia and Rosina. During this period she was frequently invited by prominent Romanian symphony orchestras for gala-concerts and tv appearances.

In the two subsequent seasons she sang as a guest at the Städtischen Bühnen in Regensburg as Gilda in ‘Rigoletto’ and Lucia in ‘Lucia di Lammermoor ‘. From 1993 to August 2000 she was connected with the Oldenburg State Theatre where she built up a large repertoire, including the role of Sophie (‘Der Rosenkavalier’, directed by Brigitte Fassbender) and Rosina (‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’, with Dietrich Henschel as Figaro).

She obtained a great success in the world premiere ‘An den schönen blauen Donau’ by Franz Hummel (conductor Peter Kuhn, director H. Lukas-Kindermann) in Dortmund and two premieres in Stuttgart with the Stuttgarter Philharmonie (conductor Lothar Zagrosek). In Frankfurt am Main she sang the role of Leila in ‘Die Wände’ by Adriana Hölszky (conductor Bernhard Kontarsky, director Hans Hollmann).

Her singing studio ‘il Portamento’ has an international reputation. In addition to the singers from the Netherlands, many others from Belgium, England, Switzerland and Canada have already found their way to ‘il Portamento’. Her current pupils include Rosemary Joshua, Hilary Summer, Henry Waddington and Marie Angel.

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