Where Body Meets Voice
Wednesday, September 6th
2:30pm ET / 8:30pm CET
Embodiment Webinar
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Sign up anyway, and we will send a recording to you!
🩵 Have you ever wondered why your voice doesn’t just “obey” you? 🩵
🩷 Have you experienced discomfort while sharing your voice with others because you felt observed?
🤍 Do you feel like your voice has been trapped inside you?
In a world that can often feel disconnected, taking care of ourselves means reconnecting, starting with our own bodies.
And guess what?
Vocal care is a bridge to an embodied, balanced state.
Reclaim your confidence so you can love and share your voice.
Who is it for?
This Webinar is for voice users of all levels & backgrounds, from singers, to speakers, to human beings, who are seeking a more intuitive and intimate relationship with this special part of themselves.
That said, it is particularly potent for those (like us) who have lived through disembodying experiences. These include: trauma, gender dysphoria, and mental health or neurological disorders.
Take it from your facilitators…. We are transgender vocalists, each with a history of trauma and mental health.
Allow us to share them with you.
MEET THE TEAM
Jaspis Mangelschots
They / Them
I might be a voice teacher now, but until my early thirties, I was scared to take voice lessons. Most of that fear had to do with how I felt about my body.
As a non-binary trans person who grew up in a time and place where trans people didn’t seem to exist, I felt foreign in my own body. I tried to assimilate into womanhood, which made me vulnerable to grooming and abuse. I spent most of my life existing outside of my body. Judging it, ashamed of it, I never truly felt or experienced it. I was scared of how people looked at it.
The hardest part for me taking voice lessons continues to be the idea of my body being observed by someone else.
Voice lessons have had an incredibly positive effect on my mental and physical health, but I could never have achieved that without the presence of a safe, trauma-informed teacher, Sam Johnson. I had specific needs and hangups- and unfortunately, many teachers wouldn’t have known how to navigate them.
My experience working with Sam propelled me into future studies, and now a passion-filled career as a coach. I studied voice science and pedagogy with John Henny, and joined IVTOM (International Voice Teachers of Mix) and EVTA (European Voice Teacher Association). I have familiarised myself with a variety of mental health theories and practices, such as polyvagal theory and somatic experiencing.
My greatest hope for Queer Your Voice is that we take our experiences and use them to build better, more accommodating spaces for singers like us.
Tylor Van Riper
all prounouns
Having grown up in a Catholic home in Southern Alberta, I began singing in church. At home, I impersonated female opera singers while I danced in my grandma’s Tiffany Blue Nightgown.
The sense was that my family "allowed” me to do these things; I know they enjoyed seeing me experience what I now know was gender euphoria, but their beliefs were an inseparable part of the equation.
They didn’t know how to support me as a young transgender voice user, because they could never believe the transgender part of the equation. The conversation was “He’s just a boy, let him play.” Which to me meant this feeling I was experiencing must eventually end.
And that it did: through decades performing on international stages, forcing my voice into low, booming places. I hated my voice, and eventually left the stage with addiction and mental health problems.
Years into sobriety, I began working in Film & TV: producing, writing, and acting alongside creatives from Schitt's Creek, Star Trek, and Kim's Convenience. I created Out There Singing, where I helped hundreds of singers reach their vocal potential. My life was filled with creative expression. But something was missing.
Finally, I came out as Trans, and though I have been disowned by my family, this is the reason I am here, creating this community with Jaspis.
Not only that, but I began to experience the softer sides of my voice again... For the first time in my 20 years of singing professionally, I love my voice.
And this is how I am choosing to use it. With you.
Our journeys as trans voice teachers, and our passion to create safe spaces for the next generation of queer artists brought us together from across the world to Queer Your Voice.
Testimonials
Singer / Songwriter
JOHN MUIRHEAD
"I play a lot of gigs as a singer/songwriter, and I've noticed that I can now sing for longer without fatigue, have a larger range, better intonation, and get way more compliments on my voice than ever before"