Here at Valcato Entertainment we take Vocal Health very seriously. Many years ago our Production Manager and Vocal Arranger/Director Vicky suffered from Chronic Laryngitis. This may not sound very serious to those who think Laryngitis is just a sore throat, but it is the equivalent of an Olympic runner tearing their hamstring muscle and being expected to race. They can simply not run no matter how hard they try!
“At the time of my vocal injury I was very young and worked for a company that didn’t really take my Laryngitis seriously and instead of a 2 week recovery time my condition became chronic and lasted 18 months. Eventually, after three ENT visits and several attempts at vocal rest, I was forced to take 8 weeks off work. My recovery took a while as after the Chronic Laryngitis had healed, I then had to contend with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), which can often occur as a result of over exhaustion with an already compromised voice. So, having overcome this terrible experience which I had encountered in my early career, I wanted our performers to feel that we care about their vocal health and support them if they ever become injured or fatigued.
Again coming back to the Olympic runner, if they had become out of shape or hadn’t trained for 6-12months they would not be able to just jump back in to a 800 metre sprint and win the race. Due to Covid times we do not expect our performers to jump straight back in to an
extensive tour without any appropriate training or guidance; this approach certainly wouldn’t end well!
This is why we arranged for our resident vocal coach Orin Vallely to provide a free vocal health workshop for our freelance performers. The workshop is really going to help our performers get ready to leap back into action as well as help them regain their vocal stamina and strength ready to take on the entertainment world again.
Orin specialises in optimising voice efficiency and health for performers with rigorous touring schedules. In addition to this, Orin regularly visits multiple UK based training institutes as a guest practitioner, working on both voice and stage technique with students in pursuit of a career or further education in the performing arts industry.
If you’re concerned about your own vocal health, or wish to schedule your own assessment with Orin, you can visit his website to find out more. We’ll also be bringing you an exclusive interview with Orin later this week, where he’ll be sharing some of his top tips for vocal health and wellbeing.
