Deborah Hudson Biography and Continuing Development
Photo by Jake at the Music Studios
Deborah Hudson (BA Hons LTCL) is an accomplished singer and teacher.
Based in London Deborah teaches singing to all ages over 16, working alongside students until they are confident. She teaches both face to face and online. She has a special interest in voice/singing-problem fixing. She teaches people from all kinds of backgrounds including those who use their voices professionally and those with vocal fold problems. Singing is a physical activity and she does ask technique singing students to practice between sessions to retrain certain muscle groups, and to speed up progress.
Deborah also teaches other singing teachers as well as Yoga teachers and other professionals who work with the body. A trained Mindfulness Coach, she uses mindfulness techniques in her teaching to help those suffering performance anxiety and is a trained Havening Practitioner. She is constantly renewing and adding techniques to her repertoire so that her teaching is always fresh and up-to-date. She continues her own singing training. There is always something more to learn and to pass on.
Deborah has organised and hosted workshops at the Wellcome Trust, particularly about the tongue. She has suggested the Trust organise a tongues exhibition and will continue to badger them about it!
Early Training
Deborah studied singing acting and drama (Guildhall School and The Peoples’ National Theatre, France), Movement and Dance, Piano and Oboe. She also has a Degree in French Literature from London University with special emphasis on poetry plus a couple of years PhD study on the writer Raymond Roussel. She has run festivals, small opera companies and artists’ management. For details of her voice training lineage please click here.
Current Training and Professional Development
Deborah still trains with the eminent opera professor Raymond Connell (Royal Academy) and she continues her professional development with courses and masterclasses, including the Advanced Singing and Teaching programme run by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She keeps up to date with the latest scientific research. She has attended “Assessment, Diagnosis and Remediation ” courses led by Dr Ron Morris, has observed at the Lewisham Hospital Voice Clinic under Dr Nick Gibbins, and is a regular at British Voice Association study days. She has also attended courses on breathing given by Anatomy Trains and continues to study the relationship between fascia release and vocal freedom. She recommends Unravellondon for laryngeal therapy and goes there herself once a month.
Deborah has her own style of teaching which, although very much results based, is humourous, student centred and non judgemental. She is primarily there to help fix problems. She encourages students to develop physical awareness of the vocal apparatus. If it feels bad then something is wrong and needs fixing. Singing should be comfortable and satisfying. Her way of teaching has proved very successful and results are swift. Students do need to practice.
Performance Experience
Her own performance experience is wide, having sung in recital, opera, operetta and oratorio as well as session singing (rock). She has sung improvised songs in concert and internationally for meditation workshops both unaccompanied and with drums. She speaks fluent French and sings in English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. She has conducted choirs and small ensembles, always emphasising the individuality of performers’ voices as they join together to make music.
Therapeutic singing teaching experience
Deborah is also widely recommended for her therapeutic singing teaching. This is for students recovering from depression, relationship difficulties, Anxiety, PTSD, addiction and other physically debilitating illnesses. She also helps those with lung conditions, including asthma. She uses breathing and listening techniques and practices forms of T’ai Chi to develop both her physical strength and her own physical awareness. For more information about Therapeutic Singing please click here. She also provides online therapeutic singing lessons.
For over ten years she has practiced mindfulness meditative processes, and has taken many Mindfulness Courses (MBCT, MBSR, MSC, IMP) as well as her Mindful Awareness Coaching, at London-Meditation. She is always looking at new ways to help students with performance anxiety and includes her Havening techniques training as a useful tool.
Deborah hosts classes in vocal confidence building, designed to help those in the work place communicate more effectively.
Professional Memberships
Deborah Hudson is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, The Association of English Speakers and Singers, the British Voice Association and an Associate of The British Laryngological Association. She also supports Freemuse, an organisation to promote freedom of expression for all musicians.
Singing for Beginners Book
Deborah’s well reviewed little book on how how to sing for real beginners, Sing Your Heart Out, illustrated by the late and lovely, brilliant cartoonist Tony Husband, is available in music stores and online. Click here to read more and for additional links.
Writing: Reviews, Articles and Shows
She has reviewed study days and books for the British Voice Association. In the past, she reviewed books for the Times Literary Supplement and has contributed articles to The Economist Magazine, The Guardian, Homes and Gardens, Apollo and Orientations Magazines. She edited a book of poetry by K J Stratford for Carcanet Press and has translated French songs and operetta for recital programmes. She has also written several musical farces and songs including the musical farce “Underneath the Oysters” performed at the Troubadour Club in London.
Wider Professional Development Summary
Havening
Fully Accredited Practitioner
Alexander Technique
2 years training at the Alexander Centre in London
Qi Gong
2 years private tuition
Mindfulness Courses
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (Three courses)
Mindful Awareness Coaching
Interpersonal Mindfulness
Mindful Self Compassion
British Voice Association Seminars.
Quiet Courage (those who have lost their voices), The Art and Science of Vocal Identity, Laryngeal Irritation
Voice and the Brain, The Breath, Mind Body Voice Relationships
Recovering Voices, The Voice in Distress, Assessment Diagnosis and Remediation in the Studio
Royal College of Music and Sidney de Haan Research Centre (Conference)
Recent Advances in the Science of Singing, Wellbeing and Health
Human Givens College Seminars
Context-Blindness
Anxiety and the brain
Encountering the Angry
Anatomy Trains Seminars
Breathing and the Breath, Fascia and Pain Science