SIGN INAbout the BVA
The British Voice Association (BVA) is a membership organisation, and registered Charity, with almost 400 current members. Formed in 1983 as the Voice Research Society, we are a multidisciplinary association of professionals whose common cause is the human voice, its care, healthy use, and performance.
Our Membership
We welcome all voice specialists and organisations. Our membership encompasses actors, acoustic engineers, educators, ENT/laryngologists and clinicians, hypnotherapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, researchers, singers, speech and language therapists, teachers, vocal coaches. We exist to connect, educate, and support voice professionals and multidisciplinary teams to access and share the latest research and best practice.
The work of the BVA includes running professional (CPD accredited) updating courses (in-person and online), sharing voice health resources with the public, and providing a forum for our members to network, collaborate and share best practice and research.
Our mission is to:
connect our members to the wider professional community through access to the exclusive resources of BVA membership: discounted events; our magazine Communicating Voice
educate occupational and professional voice users, health care professionals and trainees, teachers and managers on the latest research and best practice through live and online specialist events; our free resources
support greater awareness in the general public of good vocal health, the prevention and alleviation of voice disorders by providing free resources and the Directory of UK voice clinics.
Get Involved
Volunteer members are the backbone of the BVA. We have teams focused on events and education, on communications, and a dedicated working party for the annual Voice Clinics Forum. Together with the BVA Council, they identify voice issues that require advocacy or a special campaign. For example, for the BVA, 2024 is the year of the Speaking Voice.
Being a member of Council and or volunteering for the BVA is a great way not only to have a lasting impact on the field of voice but also to collaborate and acquire new skills (social media, event organisation and assistance, copywriting, research review, leadership). If you would like to contribute contact: administrator@britishvoiceassociation.org.uk
We invite you to join us.
The BVA Council
The current Council comprises:
Jane Oakshott (President), Nikolaos Spantideas (Past-President), Rebecca Schwarz (Company Secretary), Rebecca Moseley-Morgan (Treasurer), Rehab Awad, Elissa Finn, Jonathan Fishman, Jane Gould, Andrea Hazel Lewis, Rosario Mawby, Jenevora Williams
Rehab Awad MBBCh, MSc, MD, PG Dip (Voice Disorders)
Dr Rehab Awad has been leading the voice services for adults and children at Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust since 2009. She is the Lead Voice Therapist in the multidisciplinary voice clinic and the main therapist providing pre- & post-operative voice rehabilitation for patients who undergo phonosurgery. She also leads the Parallel Voice Clinic at University Hospital London (since 2011), and since 2017 is visiting Associate Professor of Phoniatrics Sciences at Kasr Alaini Hospital, Cairo University. Rehab has long experience in managing voice disorders in adults and children, providing a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to improving voice quality and addressing voice problems. She has a special interest in working with professional voice users (singers, actors, performers) using treatment naso-endoscopy. She has a longstanding interest in research and has published articles in national and international journals and is a speaker at many national and international conferences.
Elissa Finn BMus, MMus, MSpPath
Elissa is a speech pathologist originally from Brisbane, Australia. Working in the NHS Elissa sees paediatric and adult clients with a range of functional and organic voice and upper airway disorders both independently and alongside ENT colleagues in voice assessment clinics. She also offers private voice therapy to clients at the Voice Care Centre in collaboration with her multidisciplinary colleagues. Elissa’s passion for voice originates from her background as a singer and singing teacher and she holds a Bachelor of Music and Masters in Music Studies (vocal pedagogy) in addition to her speech pathology qualification. Elissa enjoys being a member of Australian Voice Association, British Voice Association, Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and British Laryngological Association.
Jonathan Fishman BM, BCh (Oxon), MA (Cantab), PhD, FRCS (ORL-HNS)
Jonathan is an ENT consultant and laryngologist at the Royal National Throat, Nose & Ear Hospital, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Clinical Lecturer at University College London. He is passionate about treating conditions of the larynx. He was awarded a PhD in 2013 for his research. He has received numerous awards, grants, prizes and research fellowships and has published widely in the field of laryngology. He has lectured both nationally and internationally and has organised and chaired sessions at National, European and International meetings pertaining to laryngology. He is Senior Editor for the Journal of Laryngology & Otology.
Andrea Hazel Lewis BA, MA (RCSSD)
Andrea is a voice and dialect coach, currently Associate Voice & Dialect Coach for Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Voice Coach for Matilda The Musical, and Senior Voice Tutor at Mountview Drama School. Recent projects and clients include Ella Purnell, Sweetpea (Sky Atlantic), Ben Whitehead, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Aardman Animations), Lucy McCormick, Wuthering Heights (National Theatre). Andrea trained at the Oxford School of Drama and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (MA in Voice Studies) and is currently certifying in Vocal Combat Technique. Andrea is Joint Chair of Education for the British Voice Association.
Rosario Mawby BA(Hons), MA, MPhil, PGCert, SFHEA
Rosario is a performer, vocal coach, musical director, entrepreneur, and lecturer. In addition to her degrees, respectively in music, performance and education, she holds a PGCert in Professional Academic Practice and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Rosario has worked across the HE sector: Leeds Conservatoire, Hereford College of Arts, Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, and most recently as Undergraduate Course Leader at London College of Music, University of West London. She is currently lecturing for Wales Academy of Voice and Dramatic Arts at University of Wales Trinity St. David specialising in performance, musicology, and live event management.
In her industry practice Rosario has worked alongside and supported artists and musicians, including Ian Matthews (Kasabian), Charlie Dore (‘Ain’t No Doubt’), Neil Fairclough (Queen), Ella Shaw (Britain’s Got Talent). She co-runs BMusical, a company designed to support and nurture early-career musicians and provide safe environments for graduates to work alongside professional musicians. Rosario chairs the BVA’s Communications Working Party.
Rebecca Moseley-Morgan PhD
Royal College of Music alumna Rebecca Moseley-Morgan has worked nationally and internationally as a professional opera singer. Rebecca is currently chair of the Education Working Party. She has a PhD in voice science from University College London on the mature singer. As a singer and voice scientist, Rebecca has always placed music at the heart of her research. She works primarily as a specialist teacher of the mature voice and gives workshops and seminars. Rebecca’s work has been presented at major conferences throughout Europe and the UK. She is currently devising a new vocal pedagogy training course for teachers of the older voice based on findings from her research and writing a book due for publication 2025.
Jane Oakshott MBE, BA, MA LAMDA (Gold)
Works for the three Universities in Leeds and in private practice with a wide range of professional voice users. Her first academic job was setting up and running the Drama Department at Otago University, New Zealand, where she also involved town and gown communities in performances and instituted the country’s first Radio Drama course. She was appointed MBE in 2008 for services to drama, as a deviser and director of large scale, historically informed performances. Jane set up her Voice Coaching business in 1992, Trio Literati (performance company) in 2003, and – with a Speech Therapist colleague – Leeds Voice Days in 2008. All ongoing. What fires up Jane about voice coaching is how it can transform everyday lives. She is the current President of the BVA.
Rebecca Schwarz BA(Hons), LLCM, ALCM(TD)
Rebecca has been teaching singing for almost twenty years and running choirs for almost as long. In that time, she has studied almost every approach out there but what stuck with her most was her initial training through the BVA. In 2017 she joined the BVA Education Working Party and has led or been involved with teams organising events about dancers, extreme voice, neurology and spoken voice, and contemporary singing. Rebecca has a special interest in how mindset and emotional blocks can inhibit singing and expression. She has studied and qualified in a variety of therapeutic approaches including NLP, Hypnotherapy and Timeline Therapy ™. Rebecca loves bringing people and activities together and making things happen.
Nikolaos Spantideas MSc, PhD, MRCS(ENT)
Jenevora Williams ARCM, GGSM, PhD
Jenevora is an expert in the fields of vocal health and singing teaching. After a successful career in opera, Jenevora turned her attention to investigating healthy and efficient vocal function, combining academic study and practical experience to understand the human voice. She was the first singing teacher in the UK to be awarded a PhD in voice science, and in 2010 won the BVA Van Lawrence Prize for her outstanding contribution to voice research. Her book Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults, 3rd Ed (2024) has been enormously popular with singing teachers throughout the world. Jenevora is director of Vocal Health Education and Evolving Voice, providing training courses for singing teachers, voice professionals, and the first generation of voice rehabilitation specialists worldwide. As a teacher of singing, she works with professional singers of all ages in both voice rehabilitation and career mentoring. https://jenevorawilliams.com
BVA Patrons
Ron Baken PhD
Currently the Vocal Tract Physiologist at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, Ron Baken is also Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, and Adjunct Professor of Otolaryngology at New York Medical College. Dr. Baken is internationally recognized for his research in voice physiology, and is the author of more than 50 scientific articles and book chapters. He is the co-author of several books, including the text that is generally acknowledged as the standard reference work on methods of acoustic and physiologic measurement of vocal tract function.
Dame Shirley Bassey DBE, Légion d’honneur
Britain’s most successful ever female pop-music artist, estimated to have sold over 135 million records worldwide in an international career of unrivalled scope and longevity. Her live performances have taken her to most major concert halls throughout the world.
Dame Sarah Connolly DBE
Born in County Durham, Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow. She was made a DBE in the 2017 Birthday Honours, having previously been made a CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours. In 2011 she was honoured by the Incorporated Society of Musicians and presented with the Distinguished Musician Award. She is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2012 Singer Award. Photo: Clive Barda.
Sir Derek Jacobi CBE
Screen and stage actor, film director and founding member of the National Theatre, Sir Derek Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, playing such notable characters as Edward II, Richard III, Octavius Caesar and Cyrano de Bergerac. He has also won several prestigious awards such as a Tony Award for his performance in “Much Ado About Nothing” and a BAFTA for “I, Claudius”.
Dame Felicity Lott DBE, Légion d’honneur, FRCM
Internationally renowned soprano whose opera career includes major roles at all the world’s greatest opera houses, and whose concert and recording career includes collaborations with many of the world’s finest conductors and pianists. In 2010, she was presented with ‘The Wigmore Hall Medal’ by HRH The Duke of Kent. This medal is awarded to internationally important artistic figures in recognition of their significant contribution to Wigmore Hall. Photo: Trevor Leighton.
Mark Mardell
Mark has worked in broadcasting all his life, starting as a junior reporter at Radio Tees to currently being one of the six presenters of the ‘Movers and Shakers’ podcast about living with Parkinson’s. Most of his distinguished 35-year career has been spent at the BBC where he was Newsnight’s political editor, North American, and Europe editor. As chief political correspondent for the BBC’s main TV and radio programmes, he has covered some of the world’s most important political events. In 2020, Mark won the Association of International Broadcasters award for news reporting, for a series of pieces on race and US politics. He left the BBC the same year and is now semi-retired.
Association awards & prizes
Fellowship of the British Voice Association
The BVA Council awards honorary lifetime membership to worthy recipients and the ceremonial presentation of this fellowship is made at the Association’s Annual General Meeting. Here is the list of recipients of this prestigious award:
John Rubin (2022)
Kristine Carroll-Porczynski (2022)
Sara Harris (2018)
Tom Harris (2015)
Neil Weir (2014)
Janice Chapman (2012)
Prof. Adrian Fourcin (2011)
Ingrid Rugheimer (2010)
The Van Lawrence Prize
Van L Lawrence (1928-1990) was an outstanding American otolaryngologist who was known and admired by all those specialising in voice. He was one of a number of generous professionals who supported the early Voice Research Society conferences, often at his own expense. He also allowed us to market his 1987 video “Suggested Criteria for Fibreoptic Diagnosis of Laryngeal Hyperfunction” to help raise money to support the new Society.
To honour his contribution to the voice world in the UK, the BVA has instituted an award in his name to be offered biennially, provided there are sufficient applicants of a suitable standard.
Van Lawrence Prizewinners
2023: Luke Aldridge-Waddon
“Clinical Psychology and Voice Disorders: A meta-analytic review of studies assessing psychological characteristics across individuals with and without voice-disorders”
Aldridge-Waddon-Clinical Psychology and Voice Disorders 2021: Natalie Watson
“Comparing Aerosol Concentrations and Particle Size Distributions Generated by Singing, Speaking and Breathing at Rest”
Read abstract 2018: Anna White
“Factors influencing pre- and post-operative voice therapy”
Read abstract 2016: Miss Abigail Walker, Dr Rachael Craig, Mr Nicholas Gibbins, Mr Tony Aymat, Dr Rehab Awad and Mrs Sara Harris
“Scaling up: revisiting singers’ pathologies”
Read abstract 2014: Cecilia Pemberston
“Efficiently and cost effectively managing teacher’s voice problems”
Read abstract 2012: Christian T Herbst
“Analyzing the female ‘middle register’ with EGG wavegrams”
Read abstract 2010: Dr Jenevora Williams
“The implications of intensive singing training on the vocal health and development of boy choristers in an English cathedral choir”
Read abstract 2008: Jude Brereton
“The effect of different acoustic environments on singing voice performance”
Read abstract 2004: Sue Anderson
“The interaction of sensory modalities in the learning and memorisation procedures of professional and student singers”
Read submission 2003: Pauline Meek
“Voice Quality Following Thyroid Surgery” 2002: Jane Ginsborg
“Off by heart: expert singers’ memorisation strategies and recall for the words and music of songs”
The Gunnar Rugheimer Award
Gunnar Rugheimer (1923-2003) was the individual behind the idea of a British Association dedicated to the subject of Voice. His original proposal resulted in the foundation of the Voice Research Society, which later amalgamated with “Care of the Professional Voice UK” to become The British Voice Association. Gunnar’s drive, advice, skills, patience and generosity allowed the British Voice Association to flourish, becoming first a charity and then a charitable limited company. Gunnar was a strong and inspiring personality, full of ideas and with the energy to realise them, a consummate negotiator. He brought all of these extraordinary qualities to bear in his work for the BVA. He was also a major driving force behind the first Pan European Voice Conference (PEVoC) becoming its first Secretary-General.
Gunnar had a lifetime’s commitment to communication, working first as a journalist and later in broadcasting where he helped shape the course of broadcasting history in Canada, Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia. To honour his name and his unique contribution to the British Voice Association the Association has established the Gunnar Rugheimer Lecture. The lectures take place bi-annually and are given by invited speakers eminent in the world of voice. We hope they will continue to reflect Gunnar’s spirit, his enthusiasm and passion for voice and communication.
The Gunnar Rugheimer lectures
2019: Jean Abitbol (ENT Surgeon, Paris)
“The Female Voice and the Effects of Hormones” 2017: Mel Churcher (Freelance Director/Actor/Writer. Acting & Voice coach for film and theatre)
“Voice: The Cinderella of the Film Industry” 2015: Professor Graham Welch (Chair of Music Education, UCL Institute of Education)
“The Emergence of Singer Identity in Childhood” 2013: Professor David Howard (Head of Dept of Electronics, University of York)
“The singing voice in performance – the shape of the vocal tract and its acoustics” 2011: Professor Paul Carding (Professor of Speech & Voice Pathology, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne)
“More Questions Than Answers – Current Controversies in the Management of Voice Disorders” 2009: Dr Evelyn Abberton (Phonetician and Speech Language Therapist, London University)
“Don’t Look at Me with That Tone of Voice!” 2007: Professor Bill Hardcastle (Director of the Speech Science, Queen Margaret’s University, Edinburgh)
“Imaging the Tongue and other Articulators in Normal and Disordered Speech”
History
The British Voice Association has its roots in a study group, formed in the nineteen-eighties under the name of the Voice Research Society, for individuals who were interested in learning more about the inter-workings of the voice. It quickly became apparent that there was an enormous need for such an organisation and membership increased rapidly. The Voice Research Society became The British Voice Association in 1991.
The Association’s rooms were initially at Abbey Road and subsequently at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in central London. The British Voice Association’s office address is currently in Nottingham.
Past Presidents
(since the BVA formally became a Limited Company in 1999)
2022-2023: Geraldine McElearney, MA (Singing Teacher)
2021-2022: Louise Gibbs, LTCL, MA, MEd, FHEA (Singer, Singing Teacher, Educator)
2019-2021: Craig Lees, BA (Hons) (Vocal Coach, Choral Director)
2018-2019: John Rubin, MD, FACS, FRCS (Consultant ENT Surgeon)
2017-2018: Nimesh Patel, MB ChB, FRCS, FRCS (ORL-HNS) (Consultant ENT Surgeon)
2016-2017: Ruth Epstein, PhD, MRCSLT (Consultant Speech & Language Therapist)
2015-2016: Dane Chalfin (Vocal Coach/Voice Rehabilitation Coach)
2014-2015: Katharine Lewis, BA, ARCM (Specialist Speech & Language Therapist)
2013-2014: Kate Young, BAppSci MRCSLT (Specialist Speech & Language Therapist)
2012-2013: Kim Chandler, MMus BMus AMusA (Session Singer/Vocal Coach)
2011-2012: Tom Harris, MA MB FRCS (Consultant ENT Surgeon)
2010-2011: John Rubin, MD FACS FRCS (Consultant ENT Surgeon)
2009-2010: Stuart Barr, MPhil MA(Cantab) PGAdvDip(RCM) HonARAM (Musical Director & Singing Coach)
2008-2009: Sara Harris, FRCSLT (Voice-Specialist Speech & Language Therapist)
2007-2008: Linda Hutchison, AGSM (Vocal Consultant, Singing Teacher)
2006-2007: Janice Chapman, OAM AUA FGSMD (Singing Teacher, Pedagogue)
2005-2006: Stephanie Martin, PhD FRCSLT MA BA (Speech & Language Therapist, Lecturer)
2004-2005: Ruth Epstein, PhD MRCSLT (Consultant Speech & Language Therapist)
2003-2004: John Rubin, MD FACS FRCS (Consultant ENT Surgeon)
2002-2003: Lesley Mathieson, FRCSLT (Speech & Language Therapist, Visiting Lecturer in Voice Pathology, Honorary Research Adviser)
2001-2002: Anne-Marie Speed, Hon ARAM MA ADVS CSSD BA PG Dip(DSL) (Professor, Voice & Singing Teacher, Accent & Dialect Coach)
2000-2001: Rosemarie Morgan-Watson, MRCSLT ASC (Voice) Dip. Psych. Couns. (Specialist Speech & Language Therapist)
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