Voice / Singing

BCA (Performance)

Timothy started his professional career in the performing arts industry at the age of 8. Since completing a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Drama Performance), he has worked in all aspects of theatre including drama, singing, musical theatre and dialects. His true passion is in nurturing the creative and performing arts skills of others.

With the pedagogy of “tension being the enemy” for performers, Tim approaches voice training by “breaking down the elements of voice into 5 categories – instigation, vibration, support, resonation and emotion. I work with students of all genders and age groups from bass to soprano to release the tension and achieve their performing goals.”

Having taught for over 11 years he has been successful in supporting his students gain scholarships, prepare for University entrance and professional auditions, achieve excellent results in AMEB and HSC exams and be selected for the NSW Board of Studies Encore program. Tim caters his students needs and musical styles. He is at home teaching contemporary, rock, blues, jazz, classical and musical theatre.

“…thank you for your amazing teaching skills and constant support. You have helped me grow and become the confident woman I am today.” – Clare (Penrith Conservatorium Scholarship Recipient, 2021).

“ Thank you for being the best teacher and friend anyone could ever ask for. Looking forward to many more memories to come…” Oliver (scholarship recipiant 2021)

Tim’s teaching credits include founding director of 3 Sisters Youth Theatre, Roving Reporters Acting and Camera workshop for Riverside’s Spot On Children’s Festival, Excelsior University, Katoomba Theatre Company, Australian Children’s Choir, Q Theatre and Flanno Festival. He has also taught internationally at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Blu Brick Speech & Drama, SIB KL Productions and in the Malaysian school system.

Over the years he has worked or performed with numerous Australian greats including Mariette Rups-Donnelly, Shelley Dettmar, Deborah Wells, Tony Taylor, Christa Leiman, Ron Stevens and Raymond MacDonald.

Tim employs his wealth of knowledge and experience in the performing arts industry in teaching his students. Highlights in his career have included starring in productions of Into the Woods, Steven Schwartz’s Children of Eden, Hot Mikado, Talking With, Hating Alison Ashley, Cardboard Box and Popular Mechanicals (Nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award).

BMus | MMus

Julia Shved is an accomplished jazz vocalist, voice coach, and music educator with over 14 years of professional experience across Australia and Europe. She holds two degrees in Jazz Voice and Composition and is currently pursuing a Master of Music Studies (Performance) degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she was awarded a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).

Her musical journey began in Ukraine, where she gained recognition as a dynamic performer and educator. She has performed at prestigious festivals, including Leopolis Jazz Fest, collaborated with the Polish-Ukrainian Entertainment Orchestra under the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a national cultural institution based in Warsaw, Poland, and won Second Prize in the Jazz Voice Kolo Competition for “Emerging Jazz Vocalist of the Year” in Kyiv.

With a deep commitment to fostering creativity, she has taught over 1,000 students worldwide. Her signature course, Elemental Music Theory, blends traditional and modern techniques and became an important accomplishment in her teaching approach.

Julia has attended numerous singing and jazz music workshops across Europe and Australia, further refining her skills and expanding her expertise in vocal technique and improvisation. She is a regular performer at venues such as FOUNDRY616 and The Roosevelt, she continues to captivate audiences while inspiring the next generation of musicians.

For more information, visit her website at juliashved.com

CMusA | Certificate of Performance – Voice

Catherine’s passion for music began at the age of eleven, initially playing the organ, it was this introduction that began her lifelong passion for music and performance.

Catherine began teaching piano in 1998 and singing tuition commenced in 2015. Catherine teaches all ages and abilities, she is also qualified in the Hungarian Kodaly method of music, teaching infants up to five years of age.

Catherine prepares students for exams, recitals and the HSC. Her lessons are structured and planned to suit the individual student to facilitate their own goals and achievements.

LMusA | BMus. Ed | Dip. Op

Michelle graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her experience as a professional opera singer in Australia, the UK and the USA, have informed her approach in preparing others to pursue their musical dreams. She has been teaching for 20 years. Michelle balances discipline and technical clarity with laughter and prioritises vocal health for her students.

Beginners through to professional performers are welcome as Michelle tailors lessons individually to suit the goals of each student. Optional AMEB exam studies are offered from Preliminary to the AMUS and LMUS Diplomas, with her students attaining Honours results on average. Audition, competition and stagecraft skills are also offered.

Michelle’s students have been cast with Opera Australia productions, been employed for performances on cruise ships, for recording studio sessions and have appeared on television’s The Voice. Michelle’s HSC music candidates are regularly accepted into the Conservatorium of Music (Sydney) and ED5 International.

BMus

Yasmin is a mezzo soprano, having completed a Bachelor of Music (Vocal Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2018. Yasmin has been teaching singing and piano to many individuals of all ages and vocal styles since 2016. She has taught music for her own business as well as Griffiths Music School and Cadence Music. She has a great interest in vocal pedagogy and maintaining optimal vocal health across different styles such as pop, jazz, classical and musical theatre.

She is passionate about nurturing the voice to be produced as comfortably and effortlessly as possible, releasing vocal tension through the development of a healthy vocal technique. She always begins voice lessons with warmups specifically designed to engage proper breath support, resonance and vocal registration. She enjoys breaking down vocal science in a really simplified way that children and teens understand.

Focus is placed on creating a fun, calm and safe environment for learning which is more about building up the students’ confidence and joy with singing rather than pressure and judgement. With this approach, she has prepared multiple students for their AMEB/Rockschool exams and HSC, with one of her Year 12 singing students having come first in her cohort for HSC Music in 2021 and another receiving full marks for her HSC vocal performance. Yasmin has also sung for various engagements, perhaps most notably on Studio 10 in 2019 and 2023, as Bill Bailey’s support act for his 2022 En Route to Normal tour at State Theatre, and in her one-woman show OCDiva.

BMus Ed | Dip. Op

I started my music training in a Bachelor of Music Education degree course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, then continued into a Diploma of Opera, planning to head into performance at a later stage. However along the way I discovered a real love of helping people learn about their vocal instruments – finding their vocal security, enjoying their own sound, being able to sing songs they’ve always loved, and learning to develop an instrument they often never realised they could control. I really enjoy trying to find the key that opens up vocal possibilities for students – the right technique, the right song, the right approach that fits their personality, their past experiences with music, and their hopes for their voices.

During lessons, I work on establishing a good basic technique for all students, no matter what their chosen musical style. From there we can stabilise their vocal instrument, discover and start tackling problem areas, then start developing their tone. All this is done through songs that we choose together: it’s important for students to work in styles they enjoy and feel ‘safe’ in, rather than trying to find their sound in a song they don’t like or a style they don’t want to sing in. I actively plan each student’s path of development – voices are as individual as the people who own them, so each person needs different ideas, inputs and technical approaches to help grow their skills and sounds.

It’s a constantly evolving process that I find completely fascinating and rewarding, and I look forward to continuing here for a long time into the future!

BMus

Clare began her own musical education on the violin at The Joan in 1996 with teacher Natalie Forbes, so returning to develop her own studio in the place where her musical training began, has created a lovely full circle moment.

For the past three years Clare has been building her studio with a growing number of students making up the next generation of vocalists and young violinists, as well as coaching adult musicians with an already established love and appreciation for musical practice. Clare’s teaching studio has an emphasis on developing a strong technical foundation, the importance of music reading and theory, as well as generating a passion and interest in the story each piece of music has to tell. Her own experience with OCD and anxiety has inadvertently shaped her teaching method into one that explores the impact mindset can have on our playing and performance, as well as facilitating a greater understanding of each student’s individual learning needs. In the last 12 months, Clare has celebrated student successes across AMEB exam results, a first in HSC music, and university admissions.

As well as one on one tutoring, Clare’s experience of choral repertoire provided her with the opportunity to vocally direct the Inspire Choir – a project with community at it’s heart, which has brought a whole new group of singers to the Penrith Conservatorium, and has indeed created a wonderful community of kindness, and musical appreciation within itself. Clare has also been leading the Early Childhood Music program during her time at the Joan, which has been imperative to her development as a music teacher, and has brought about a fantastic amount of joy. It is so lovely to be in a position to share the love of music with people so new to it.

Clare values very highly the connection music brings about, takes great pride and responsibility in the development of each student across her entire teaching portfolio, and greatly appreciates the support her students and their families give to music education.