A short history of Meribeth
Meribeth's passion for singing and the human voice came in with her. She began her career singing to all the animals, sea creatures, and the ocean on the beachfront where she spent her early years and summers until she went to college. Dance became a part of her life when she was three and sport followed in her teen years. All are intricate parts of her life today; and for her, music, the body and spirit are one.
Formal study of singing began in high school and continued at Salem College where she received a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance. After that came a Masters in Sacred Music (Voice and Choral Music) and then after several years teaching at Wilson College came a return to study at the University of Southern California where she received a Doctorate in Music (Voice Science Performance and Anatomy).
Professional music activities include solo concerts, performance in summer stock, choral conducting of major choral works, musical director of shows in university and community theatre, voice and vocal consultant to film productions and theatre.
In addition to university teaching and consulting, Meribeth has toured the US, the UK, and Europe giving master classes in singing, and teaching courses in CoreSinging®, Presence in Performance, and Vocal Anatomy for Voice Professionals. Her membership in various organizations devoted to the voice have included: NATS, AOTOS, British Voice Association, CoMet, The Voice Foundation, and others.
After years of teaching both singing and anatomy in the university, Meribeth was honoured with a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship to the Royal College of Surgeons of London to do further research on the voice. While in London, dance, movement, Alexander Technique, spiritual alchemy, and esoteric and spiritual aspects of sound and healing became part of Meribeth's study, and she came to value these as contributing greatly to 'presence' in the performer. She subsequently moved to London to further her interests in healing and communication. For her, singers (and speakers) must develop both the inner and outer self so that singing truly becomes authentic and from the heart -therefore allowing the performer to become the true healer.
Her studies of numerous aspects of energy and consciousness brought all of her interests and skills together and led her to develop CoreSinging®. Amazed and excited by the results of this work, she now devotes her time to this practice.
Along the way she wrote Dynamics of the Singing Voice, an internationally respected book on singing since 1982; The Singing Book (with C Vaughn), a book for beginning singers and class voice; The Performer's Voice, for anyone interested in singing or speaking; Presence, Confidence and Personal Power for speaking and communication skills; numerous articles, short books and web blogs.
The culmination of Meribeth's multifaceted and multidisciplinary work resulted in a new universal approach to singing called CoreSinging®. CoreSinging® emphasises energy, awareness, imagination, practice and performance as ways in to teaching and singing. Singers and teachers have hailed this as one of the most important practical vocal performance and teaching tools available today.
Meribeth now lives in France where she is busy expanding her work with CoreSinging®. A new video learning series, Oleli Discovers CoreSinging®, has begun with the Introduction and Lesson One.
