Foreign Language Diction for Singing Teachers & Professionals

In a series of eight workshops, expert language tutors will introduce advanced techniques for singing in German, French and Italian with targeted pronunciation applied to text and repertoire, as well as providing a variety of rules and exercises to carry on into their professional and teaching career. They will also explore the lesser-used languages of Spanish and Russian.

Week 1 to 3 Presentation on rules of diction for the first three languages, exercises based on readings and various techniques related to quickly assimilating fluent diction. 

• 4th of February: Italian with Annalisa Monticelli
• 11th of February: French with Cécile Gorge 
• 18th of February: German with Grainne Dunne
• 25th of February: Mid Term Break (no class)

Week 4 to 6 students will perform their assigned repertoire and receive feedback from the tutors. A summary of guidelines applied to singing will be provided.

• 4th of March: Italian Annalisa Monticelli
• 11th of March: French with Cécile Gorge
• 18th of March: NO CLASS (due to St. Patrick's Day being the previous day) 
• 25th of March: German with Grainne Dunne

 Week 7 and 8 Introduction to Spanish (with a clarification on the different dialects) and Russian, providing basic rules to sing those less frequent but upcoming languages. 

• 1st of April: Russian with Tanya Sirotina (ONLINE) - Zoom account required
• 8th of April: Spanish with Annalisa Monticelli (again live in person)

Note: This course taking place live and in-person is subject to government COVID-19 guidelines 

• Confidently approach text on repertoire in Italian, French, and German.
• Explore Spanish and Russian Diction, learning basic guidelines to approach it correctly.
• Explore the different dialects and accents of the Spanish language.
• Clarify similarities and differences between languages.
• Develop the ability to recognise and pronounce different vowels and consonants according to teach language.  
• Work on the natural flow of the speech in Italian, German and French. 
• Work on developing a set of skills on advanced diction pronunciation.
• Sing like a native speaker

Ability:  Grade 8 and higher.

Tech: A computer, tablet or phone with a good internet connection (for 1st April Online Class).

Annalisa Monticelli is a pianist, conductor, and educator from Milazzo (Italy). She is an active performer in Ireland and abroad, where she specialised in Vocal and instrumental accompaniment having performed with soloists, ensembles, Orchestras and Opera companies in Europe, North/South America, and Asia. She has more than 15 years of experience teaching diction to English speakers in Ireland, Italy, and the USA.
Ms Monticelli is currently Programme Director-Répétiteur at DkIT Dundalk; Italian Coach for the RIAM; Conductor of Anam Chamber Choir and Executive Director-Chief Accompanist-Italian Coach for the Bassi Brugnatelli International Symposium. Recent engagements include Diction Coaching for INO’s Productions of Boheme and Cenerentola.

Cécile Gorge, a French native speaker, studied piano, harmony and theory in the National Conservatoire of Lille, France. She studied musicology and English in Lyon II and Lille III universities and was a coach with Lyon's opera choir for two years. Since moving to Ireland in 1989, Cécile has been teaching French with the Alliance Française Dublin. She has gained a lot of experience teaching phonetics with D.I.T and R.I.A.M voice students for the past thirty years. She has also lead workshops with secondary school French teachers through Ambassade de France en Irlande on how to approach phonetics in the classroom.

Tanya Sirotina was educated as a classical conductor (Russia), singer (MMus, UK) and musicologist (PhD, University of Manchester). She has been active on the international stage as a performer since 1989. Beginning with 2014 she has worked as a curator, stage director and conductor in international multidisciplinary projects. As a musicologist she specialises in Russian Opera of the first part of the twentieth century (1901-1936).

A fluent German speaker, the native Dublin pianist, Grainne Dunne, studied, trained and lived in Germany for 32 years. Immersed in German culture, having gained a wealth of experience in many genres and following specialised training, she concentrated on Vocal Accompaniment and Coaching, later joining the Vocal Faculties of Hannover University of the Arts and Hamburg Hochschule/ Conservatory where she taught for over two decades. During this time she honed her skills in understanding German diction for Singers, also contributing to a Phonetic CD for the “Opera Aria” Album Series from Breitkopf & Haertel.