Blog post #1 - The Accidental Singing Teacher!

It’s true! I became a singing teacher quite by accident.
Gone are the days of this kind of story…….

It was the 1980's, as you can see by the photo and my miserably messy 20s had me traipsing around teaching music in scruffy high schools in London’s down-at-heel western suburbs. A flit across the world in 1983 found me lucky to get a gig at Perth Modern School where things looked up a bit in the work sense, but I continued to be mostly miserable…😥

But the sun came out in my life when I drove into Melbourne one sunny January morning in 1985 to take up Opera and Music Theatre studies at the VCA. 

I didn’t want to get embroiled in a school because I wished to focus solely on honing my performance craft. I’d had a very ordinary crack at it as a student at Trinity College of Music in London, so doing well was important to me.  (Um…learnt a lot about how NOT to teach singing there!🙄)

So, silly me, I was thinking that with a few years of teaching experience under my belt, I’d apply for footloose and fancy-free CRT work to keep me afloat. 🤣 You can imagine the shock when I was turned down flat by the then Teacher Registration Board? 😱 Not qualified apparently. 🥴
So I cobbled together sundry bits of part time work, retail, pulling pints and waiting at tables; you know the drill.

The only people I knew in Melbs were off on the VSO’s Pirates tour, so I pretty much knew no one in town, but a friend of a friend suggested that I give Peter Ross at Wesley a bell.
I steeled myself for the cold call…..

Bless him, for he gave me the time of day, even though I could hear it was all happening in the background; and he asked me questions about my teaching experience etc
Ascertaining that I was a singer, he asked me if I had taught singing.
Taken aback I said, “no, not really……” and then floundered about saying that I had used what knowledge I had to run choirs and work on school shows, but in all honesty I had never taught singing per se, my voice tailing off sadly… 
“Well” he said, “come and see me on Friday and we’ll have a chat.”

In I strolled to Wesley and up the stairs to the mayhem of the Music Department; trumpets tooting and violins scraping, there were excited kids everywhere, coming out of lunchtime rehearsals. Before I could locate his office Peter came into the melee and spotting me asked, “Kate?”
I nodded and as I shook his hand he said warmly, “so pleased to meet you; here’s your roll and your teaching room is round the corner and your first student is due in five minutes!”
And that, my friends, is how I came to be a singing teacher!
A profession that has brought me joy upon joy ever since that momentous day when dear Peter had such faith in me; a complete stranger, virtually off the street.

That lovely man died a couple of years ago. RIP dearest Peter. Remembered with love, esteem and affection by me and by many. But anyone who has ever heard me say, “take a Surprised, Silent, Smiley breath,” has him to thank.

Watch this space for more about the SSS breath later! 

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