BVA ARCHIVE: BVA Profile
Pamela Parry relates her personal journey through 'voice'
For as long as I can remember, I have been singing. Born in North Wales I was surrounded by it, I was always chosen to sing the solos at school, in the church choir and at Eisteddfods. I formed a pop band at the age of 16 with amongst others the jazz singer Ian Shaw touring the northern clubs.
I went to Mabel Fletcher College, Liverpool to do a 4 year music diploma and studied with Geoffrey Walls. He introduced me to classical music. I had a huge thirst for discovering and performing this new repertoire and would be constantly learning new pieces. Within a very short time I was regularly being invited to do recitals and oratorio at the Liverpool Cathedrals, doing concerts at the Philharmonic Hall and won the Singer & Musician of the Year in the Liverpool Festival and major prizes at Chester Festival.
I was then accepted at the Royal College of Music and started on a post-graduate advanced solo singers course with further studies there in the Opera School. I studied with Margaret Kingsley and was fortunate to study repertoire with Robert Sutherland who had been accompanist to Maria Callas. I joined the college choir and took part in concerts with Placido Domingo and Janet Baker.
After winning The John Ireland Singing Prize I performed regularly as a soloist with various choral societies up and down the country often with fellow students Sarah Connolly and Gerald Finley. I went into the Opera School at an incredibly exciting time, the new Britten Theatre had been built and James Lockhart and Mary Hill were in charge. As part of the celebrations we had a week of Royal Gala performances recorded by the BBC. I was chosen as stand in for Anne Evans at the preview night and sang Dich,Teure Halle from Tannhauser.
The term ended with a run of Puccini's Il Trittico directed by Graziella Sciutti. I played Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica and Nella in Gianni Schicchi. I had great crits from The Telegraph and The Times. This attention generated even more solo engagements and I noticed a slight inconsistency in the middle register of my voice, largely ignored by my tutors. This, combined with the college's anxiety regarding the effect that my northern accent and the way I looked might have on my future career was beginning to take it's toll on me.
For the first time in my life I became self-conscious about performing which resulted in some minor vocal problems. My tutors had no idea how to deal with these and stopped me from performing in public, a huge confidence booster!
Eventually a laryngology appointment was made and no pathology was found. But the voice problem continued so I was sent to another laryngologist who said my problem was environmental ie. go back to the people who are teaching you and get them to help.
He prescribed a tonic of vitamin B tablets and strychnine, apparently it strengthens one's throat muscles you know !
2 bottles later and I felt a little stronger, poisoned but stronger. In my lessons my voice was still the same, my teacher seriously suggested on one occasion that maybe it was an allergy, perhaps the lipstick I wore was affecting my throat!!
I had kept in contact with Geoffrey Walls in Liverpool and during an AOTOS seminar with various SLT's, (one whom I now believe to be Christina Shewell) he mentioned my predicament to her and she very kindly agreed to see me at University College Hospital, London. I remember that day so well walking into the room and seeing this large semicircle of SLT's all waiting to see me!! That was a huge turning point as I was encouraged to talk about what I was going through which I found difficult, I couldn't get up and sing anymore. The response was a positive one and I continued to work with the group on a weekly basis.
Meanwhile I was asked to leave the opera school but stay as a post-graduate to finish my final months. When I left college I got a job in a music shop and started to do some piano and singing teaching. I was vocal consultant on The Nellie Melba Story for Australian TV and Music Advisor and Coach for Fiona Shaw on Hedda Gabler for BBC TV.
A few years later I started rehabilitation work with a singing teacher, it was painstaking but something kept me going. Eventually I started to perform again but as a mezzo, it felt easier and I could hide more, especially in ensemble work. I was one of the four professional choristers at St Stephen's Church, South Kensington alongside Graham Godfrey. I did chorus work in the Grand Arena Opera productions of Carmen with Jose Carreras in Munich and Zurich and recorded and performed in Jazz Festivals in France with Liane Carroll and Ian Shaw.
I started to do some auditions and was cast in a production of Mozart's Magic Flute in Liverpool. I lived there for several years building up a popular teaching practice, doing recitals and was instigator and artistic director of Kirby Arts Festival.
I joined the BVA and soon realised that learning more about vocal anatomy and the psychology of voice was something that I wanted to pursue, especially the diagnosis and rehabilitation route so any courses to do with anatomy, voice and psyche I was there. I was fortunate to join the Voice Clinic team at The Liverpool Hospital on several occasions and this inspired me on moving back down south to Brighton to contact the Voice Clinic at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. The team of SLT Linda Preston and Laryngologist Meredydd Harries have been a huge influence on my work and I am constantly grateful for their generosity. I became a very popular vocal coach but I was not singing or performing and realised that I was still stuck in trauma since college days. I did a course at Brighton University a few years ago on Hypnosis and was introduced to the Human Givens, a new cutting edge psychotherapy based on our needs as a human being. I was giving so much attention to other people and not getting the attention I needed, being on stage.
It all suddenly made sense and with a few sessions with a Human Givens therapist I did my first concert for eight years in Liverpool. It was a small step but since then I have kept getting back on the horse by forming a cabaret band, taking acting classes in London, devising and compering monthly shows in Brighton, playing at the Chichester Festival and will be working with the LSO in December.
I have a thriving private teaching practise in Brighton, and teach at Central School of Speech and Drama and at Guildford School of Acting. I am delighted to have recently been appointed a director of the BVA.
