Douglas Martin, Vocal Coach
Change hearts with your voice
Why Me?
One of my clients, Debra Patchell
Another client, David Schuster
During Covid, I rediscovered the importance of breath and the release of the body. To redirect the mind from judgment to imagination and musical values at hand.
Diverse Experience
I've been at the intersection of grand opera, recital, Broadway, cabaret, and church music for almost 40 years. Singing and the human voice are a large part of my upbringing and life.
Vocal Pedagogy
I've worked with renowned voice teachers who began in the glory days of opera (when voices needed to ring effortlessly without the aid of microphones) at Indiana University, Bloomington: Virginia Zeani and Margaret Harshaw, and in New York City with Ellen Repp and later, Ruth Falcon. I've also spent two decades assisting one of the greatest conductors and nurturers of singers in the past half-century: Eve Queler.
Libero Canto
I've also integrated into my coaching ideas from my work of two decades with Deborah Carmichael, one of the founders with Kinga Cserjesi of Libero Canto School of Singing in New York City. Deborah is a protégé of the late Edwin Szamosi of Vienna, Austria.
Libero Canto's approach guides singers to free the body and breath, relinquishing conscious control while turning one's attention to musical values at hand, which allows singing that seems to come from the "beyond," seems transcendental, sacred - hints of the universe behind a printed score.
Training
I attended Indiana University, Bloomington, after getting a Performer's Certificate in Piano and a Bachelor's Degree in Choral Music Education from SUNY Fredonia in 1979.
Beginning My Career
At Indiana University I became an Associate Instructor in 1980 for the famed Opera Theater working on shows including Wozzeck and Love for Three Oranges, while beginning a master's degree in piano. I remember sharing a piano bench with Virginia Zeani, a voice professor, as she sang Desdemona's love duet from Verdi's Otello with a student tenor - not that many years after she had probably sung the role in major theaters all over the world.
Santa Fe & NYC
Following love, after a summer way over my head at Santa Fe Opera in 1982, I moved to NYC with set designer Bill Clarke, whom I would marry 31 years later. I returned to Santa Fe Opera as often as I could get hired there in 1983, 1988, 1989, and 1990.
Juilliard Years
From 1983 to 1986 I served as Associate Instructor and rehearsal pianist at the Juilliard School for the American Opera Center. When I first arrived, I learned I had no idea how to follow a conductor (my apologies to George Mester). I began to work in Italian with the glorious Corradina Caporello, took a few English Diction classes with Madeleine Marshall, French Diction from Thomas Grubb, and played Lady Macbeth from Mtsensk rehearsals for the son of its composer conductor, Maxim Shostakovich.
Master's Completion
I eventually completed my Indiana University master's degree in piano performance in 1986 with the help of Clarke Remington, Gyorgy Sandor, and Joseph Rezits.