Testimonials

Noelle Turner

Noelle Turner

Prof. of Voice, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany

“Carol Baggott-Forte has taken the principles of functional voice training, extracted from the original teachers of Bel Canto, and combined them with her profound pedagogical skills. Her extensive experience has taken vocal teaching to a level that is extremely accurate and highly effective.

She is a teacher who, through her ability to hear and analyse sounds, knows at every moment in every lesson how the inner mechanics of the voice are operating. She is able to analyse the functions and spontaneously proceed with the appropriate exercises to improve the condition of the voice.

The principles that she works on, pitch, vowel and intensity, are on the one hand extremely simple but in the application profoundly complex and mastered by few.

When I observe Carol’s teaching I feel that we have gone full circle back to the true meaning of Bel Canto. Truly beautiful singing is not a question of aesthetics, but of correct function, subject to natural laws that are inviolable.

Carol Baggott- Forte is the only teacher of singing that I have observed who is truly deserving of the title ‘maestra’.”

Paul Sportelli

Paul Sportelli

Music Director, Shaw Festival

“It is very exciting that Carol Baggott-Forte will be teaching a master class for you in Paris! Carol has been teaching voice here at the Shaw Festival for the past eleven seasons, and has done wonders with people’s voices. The singers and actors find Carol tremendously helpful, and her work has definitely had a positive effect on our theatrical productions. As the music director for the Shaw Festival, it is great to have someone like Carol to work with our performers. Having seen the wonderful results she achieves. I recommend Carol to you wholeheartedly.”

Gillian Margot

Gillian Margot

Jazz Vocalist, New York

“Carol is the only vocalist/coach/teacher I have met whose expertise demonstrates both range and specificity when it comes to vocal artistry and technique. I first studied with her 15 years ago and then reconnected with her after touring extensively and having a baby. Throughout all of these life challenges and changes, Carol has greatly helped my understanding of how the voice works from a scientific perspective, how to trust my instincts, and how to strengthen, maintain, and expand my vocal range.  Her keen perception, empathy and sense of humour make her a pleasure to work with.”

Ariel Harwood-Jones

Ariel Harwood-Jones

“I am and will always be grateful to Carol. During my years as a professional singer, I had lost sections of my voice. I thought I would not be able to perform again. Yet Carol, with her insightful mind and exceptional pedagogical skills, was able to not only identify the troubles within the very first hearing, she was also able to bring my voice back and then help me take it to the next level: effortless singing!”

Thomas Maxeiner

Thomas Maxeiner

Vocal teacher, Hamburg, Germany

“I have taken numerous singing lessons in Carol Baggott-Forte’s European master classes. She has been crucial to my vocal development, which has had considerable influence on my own teaching. Through her vast experience with the principles of functional voice training, her intuition and her passion for the process of vocal development, she has evolved a unique mastery of teaching. She has a special ability to assess and determine the needs of a particular voice, often in an incredibly short period of time. Her teaching is enormously effective because she does not judge whether something is ‘right or wrong’ about the singer’s approach, but instead determines what the vocal difficulty signifies about the function of the vocal mechanism. Thus she offers the singer real help without dogma through own her personable dry humour.”

Patricia O'Callaghan

Patricia O'Callaghan

Soprano

“Ms Baggott-Forte combines an understanding of voice mechanics with an intuitive clarity of how to nourish and develop the whole singer. She marries the pupil to her own voice without preconceived ideas as to what that might sound like by focusing on what is a healthy sound rather than an aesthetic ideal. The result of such instruction, is not only finding one’s own true voice, but in gaining the ability to express music freely.”

Wolfgang Michael Weiss

Wolfgang Michael Weiss

Baritone

“Thank you for your very helpful instructions. There is a huge development taking place with my voice after all the new experiences of the master class. Thank you for being such a warm-hearted and friendly teacher and for coming to Frankfurt. I hope very much that you will come again to teach your friends here.”

Stefan Grunwald

Stefan Grunwald

“Whether you need help in case of vocal problems or just some fine-tuning of an advanced voice, if you want to learn more about functional voice training for yourself or for your own students, Carol Baggott-Forte is always the right one to turn to. In her classes I learnt more about singing in one week than I learnt during years of studying at different German High Schools of Music. She has patience and humour and teaches with heart and brain.”

Diane Severson

Diane Severson

Soprano

“I have worked with several Functional Voice Teachers over the years and Carol Baggott-Forte definitely deserves the honour Cornelius Reid bestowed upon her in appointing her his successor for seminars in Europe. She has helped my voice develop in ways I didn’t think possible, as well as doing some excellent “repair” work when I was recovering (too slowly) from a bad throat infection and facing important performances in the States. I will be grateful to her always! She has a very down-to-earth, no-nonsense approach, which appeals, but is at the same time very intuitive in her approach and encouraging to the developing singer.”

Paola Tedde

Paola Tedde

“I’m still so thankful to have taken part at your Masterclass in Duisburg. Your competence, your instinct, your teaching experience are of such a quality that it still echos in my ears, in my memories and deep in my heart. I just needed to thank you again in a written form for the depth of your perceptions, for the claritiy and the preciousness of your insight about my voice as well as about my soul. I felt so deeply recognized while attending. Your feedback brought me to interesting and important reflections about my learning how to sing further with more economy and lightness. Something literally moved inside of me and in my throat.”

“In the Spring of 2004, Carol Baggott-Forte gave a Belcanto master class seminar here at the Niederrheinische Musik und Kunstschule in Duisburg. With uncanny certainty she was able to quickly ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of each singer’s voice. Through precisely chosen functional exercises she set each individual on a path towards freer singing. Her results in this short time were astounding. I am very pleased to recommend Carol Baggott-Forte for Belcanto seminar master classes.”

Herr Gero Natzel

Direktor der Niederrheineischen Musik-und Kunstschule, Duisburg, Germany

“My vocal work over the past three years with Carol Forte has deepened my understanding of singing processes as both a singer and a choral conductor. I am also gaining an emerging foundation of theory and practice that I am able to apply to my music teacher training programs at OISE. Ms. Forte’s pedagogical and artistic strengths lie in her ability to respond to individual vocal needs and strengths. Her private lessons and workshops benefit singing educators as well as vocal artists at all levels of ability.”

Dr. Lee Willingham, M. Mus, Ed. D.

Conductor. Bell’ Arte Singers. Associate Professor, Faculty of Music Wilfrid Laurier University

“I enjoyed your teaching and your precise way of explaining things. Your functional hearing is excellent which is of fundamental importance in this game. We voice teachers and singers were impressed and we thank you very much for coming to keep up the great work which Cornelius achieved here during the last ten years or so. We sincerely hope to see you in a year’s time.”

Lionel Fawcett

Singer, conductor, professor of voice, Municipal Music School Mannheim, Germany

Liberated

Voice

Advanced Singing Technique Master

Available for in-person instruction in the Niagara Region of Ontario, and on-line tutorial classes in Canada, the USA, UK and Europe for musically trained singers over the age of sixteen to sixty.

Contact: information@liberatedvoice.com

Blog | Articles

Qualities of Voice.

As I finish up my first week of 50 out of 100 lessons in Bremen, Germany, I realize that there are certain elements of voice we can never explain in certain rationalities, voices that break the rules and stimulate the ear to wonder. Some qualities of sound merely...

The Vagus Nerve and the Larynx

My old Maestro, Cornelius Reid often said, “destroy the voice; destroy the psyche. Restore the voice; restore the Psyche.”While my intuition and previous vocal conditions told me this was a remarkable fact rather than fiction, I could not come to a complete...