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Lauren Carley

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 Joy of Singing

  Voice Teacher

Succulent

Joy of

 Singing

Every voice,
at every age,
and in the face of any challenge,

can thrive.

What is your voice capable of? My mission is to help you discover this. Are you a professional or amateur singer preparing a piece? A public speaker, actor, teacher or therapist seeking a more dependable voice? Are you dealing with vocal trauma, mature voice challenges, or Parkinson’s disease, and looking to get the most from your singing and speaking voice? Your voice can work for you and be a joy to use.

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Choral Workshops

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Speak Your Piece

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Community Chorus

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Estill Voice Science & Bel Canto Training

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Coaching for Performance

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Exotic Travel Singing Retreats

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Private Vocal Training

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Group Vocal Training

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Integrated Vocal Coaching

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Parkinson's Voice Work

vocal training

Private and Group
Vocal Training

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Is your voice working the way you want and need it? Do you have challenges of vocal stamina, range, or flexibility? Perhaps your voice has been affected by age, illness, habits or performance anxiety. I will share how you can be vocally versatile, sing any genre, restore vocal control and explore new vistas of your unique sounds. I will support you to sing the music that draws you, broadens your awareness and opens your musical ears. You can trust me to be patient and playful, and add concrete direction to your lessons. I will listen, create and adapt with humor. 

And then, of course, fish for more.

 

Zoom private and group vocal coaching for singers, actors, teachers, therapists, and public speakers.  Contact me for more information.

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ESTILL Voice Science & 

BEL CANTO Training

Human vocal tracts bend, stretch, and actively move – they are capable of making every sound that we can hear. I can teach you to how to use your voice to sing the music that moves your heart, be it art song, operatic arias, folk, hymns, music theatre, pop, or jazz.

Speak Your Piece

A customed-designed course for mature speakers. Restore your speaking voice to full clarity, stamina, range and pitch center.

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Enjoy ZOOM and Jamulus choral workshops with people of all levels of music experience. Sing southern gospel, Shape Note, classical, pop, rounds, chant and world folk.

Tuesdays at 4pm PST (currently on ZOOM and Jamulus).

Everyone welcome – no music experience necessary.

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You love to sing next to one another, hear harmony, feel the movement of sound in your body and experience the emotional expression of making sound. If this is your dream, we invite you to join us to make an instant chorus. We sing easy part songs from around the world—pop, rock, folk and classical arrangements by contemporary and traditional composers.

 

All are welcome, no sight singing necessary. Explore your unique sounds with playful body movement. Choral workshops meet weekly and VARIETY PACK! performs twice per year.

workshops
retreats

Joy of Singing
Retreats

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Joy of Singing provides local and exotic international singing retreats. These are spirit-lifting sojourns of harmony singing, good humor and deep listening—no cares, no dishes, no office, no driving, and no distractions! 

Retreat locations have included Bishop’s Ranch in Healdsburg, CA; Saint Dorothy’s rest in Occidental, CA; the Mercy Center, Burlingame, CA; Calvi and Venice, Italy;  Bath and Oxford, England; and Dublin, Ireland. Every level of musical experience is welcome—the music is accessible to all. No audition, vocal or note reading expertise is necessary, just the desire to come together in a beautiful place to sing. Repertoire may include world traditional, southern gospel, chant, contemporary folk, classical and improvisational music. Stay tuned for upcoming retreats both here and abroad. I will post upcoming singing retreats when we are free to congregate.

Ireland

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Succulent

Integrated
Vocal Coaching

Integrated Vocal Coaching is a psycho/physical restorative path to singing, a cross-training healing approach to voice study augmented by the tools of Internal Family Systems Therapy. Discover creative insights about your inner voice that will help you to recognize the emotions at play in your outer voice. Restore your innate energy to express creatively merging vocal science with your unique intrapsychic understanding.
 

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about

Who Is Lauren Carley?

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Break those genre, gender and geriatric ceilings!

I have performed, taught voice and led community choruses for forty years. I am still curious, always lsearching for new ways to open up my ears and learn something new.  Young singers are showing us that labels are less important than we’ve been led to believe. 

I was trained in bel canto, and performed classically for decades with a secret wish to know how to belt.  Now I’ve discovered Estill technique and am thrilled to belt out a pop tune.  I now teach and coach influenced by Estill, Alexander, Feldenkrais, yoga, dance, mime, theatre, meditation and martial arts.  I pay attention to your unique mind, body and habits because your health, learning style, temperament and personality influence your singing.  I intend to meet you where you are. I know you come to a voice lesson with a lifetime of skills.  I encourage you to bring everything you know, and to trust yourself to play and experiment in your voice practice.

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Especially now, when our world has suddenly and radically changed, I treasure this quote about singing: “Singing reflects a state of balance and a positive inner glow of contentment and equanimity.  It is the audible resonant reality of our existence.” John Lennon, retired professor of Vocal Performance.

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BIO

Lauren Carley, interdisciplinary artist and mezzo-soprano, has sung opera, oratorio and solo recital as well as cabaret, one-woman shows and musical theatre.  She has toured and recorded early to experimental music with her vocal ensembles Polyhymnia, Schola Adventus, and In Other Words.  She leads community choirs and specializes in singing as a healing pathway for singers with vocal trauma and Parkinson’s Disease.  She teaches the Joy of Singing for the Osher Life-long Learning Program at UC Berkeley, is assistant director for the Russian chorus, Slavyanka and leads singing retreats around the world.

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Her performance, vocal pedagogy and choral conducting draw from Estill, Orff, Kodaly, theatre, mime, Alexander, Interplay and Feldenkrais techniques. Teaching repertoire includes American Shape Note, gospel, world folk, spirituals, original and contemporary repertoire, chant, and rounds.

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Past appointments include Vocal/Choral Director for the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Oakland Youth Chorus choral conductor, Guest Professor in Drama at Colorado College, Adjunct Professor of Voice at New York University and Vocal Faculty for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.  She holds a Masters of Interdisciplinary Studies from New York University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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