Nicola Harrison is a writer, journalist, professional singer, director and lecturer of singing and song interpretation at Pembroke College at the University of Oxford. As a result of past training as a Senior Registered Nurse she has been qualified to work with vocal groups suffering from severe mental health problems, brain damage and learning disabilities to find new ways of surmounting these and other challenges to the teaching of singing.

Talk description: 

When professional singers perform they have to multi-task at a super-heroic level. This presentation takes a look at the complex demands this makes on the minds and bodies of singers and how a new technique might be used to train vocalists more efficiently. Can we harness the imagination to stimulate the correct muscles of singing? And if we can, what might be the implications for medicine? This talk involves live performance, engages the audience and brings them into the action.