Unlocking Your Voice

Esther Salaman was an inspired teacher of singing and of singers. She confessed to having been 'a singer in constant technical difficulty - only resolved in later life'. These problems and their resolution were the key to her success as a teacher. Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music, she toured internationally as a professional mezzo-soprano. She became a consultant to the National Opera Studio, the English National Opera, and a visiting professor at Trinity College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She ran masterclasses at the Dartington and Marlborough summer schools and worked with such outstanding artists as Willard White, Ian Bostridge and Dennis O'Neill.

'You make statement after statement which please and flatter my own comprehension of the art of singing. I hope that you have lots of readers who heed your words.' - Dame Joan Sutherland; 'Esther Salaman encapsulates very pithily the basis of her teaching methods, and I feel sure this book will be welcomed, by singers and teachers alike, for its directness and sound common-sense' - Sir Mark Elder

• Preface to the Second Edition,Foreword by Mark Elder,Prelude,Unlocking Your Voice,Freedom and Agility,Vibrazione - Vibrancy,Messa di Voce - Expression: Dynamics,Resonance,'Covering the Sound' and Registers,Your Daily Voice Limbering,Vowels and Consonants,The Wish to Sing,Tension and Performance,Voice Strain and Other Hazards,The Pleasures and Perils of the Singing Profession,Side Tracks and Deception,Teachers and Students,More About Bel Canto,Choir Trainers,Finale,Appendix: Analysis of Schubert's 'An die Musik'