Coaching/Tuition

• A lifetime of speaking experience as a presenter in the arts sector
  
• Public speaking engagements for numerous community groups
  
• Presenting at conferences of groups such as financial advisers and real estate agents
  
• Customised courses on voice for specific groups e.g. businesswomen and environmental scientists
  
• Coaching businesspeople for interviews and presentations
  
• Courses on vocal confidence
  
• Courses on voice image in the workplace
  
• Courses for actors and teachers
  
• Courses on healthy and effective breathing techniques

What a Nerve!
Discover Katharine’s tried and true strategies for overcoming performance anxiety when you are speaking in public.

Free and Easy
Katharine talks you through strategies for relaxation and letting go of tension and stress.

• Singing tuition from early to advanced levels
  
• An emphasis on developing ease and economy of voice use
  
• Coaching for singing examinations from Initial to Diploma level
  
• A focus on words and poetry as the foundation of singing
  
• Sound anatomical knowledge of the voice and its function
  
• Voice health advice and strategies
  
• Wide classical repertoire from mediaeval to contemporary
  
• Foreign language skills especially in German and French
  
• Performance skills coaching for singers, addressing issues of confidence, repertoire and programme planning
  
• Holistic and sympathetic coaching for those with breathing or voice difficulties
  
• An attractive spacious studio with excellent acoustic
  
• Library of voice-related information
  
• Sing and See ™ computer programme for immediate vocal feedback
  
• Recording of repertoire and lessons
  
  Teaching Background
  • Katharine Watts initially studied singing in New Zealand with Coreen Gray and Joyce Eyre. She holds a Masters Degree with First Class Honours from Auckland University, and a Teachers’ Diploma from Auckland College of Education, and has pursued voice study throughout her career.
    
  • Secondary school teaching in English and languages was followed by private singing teaching, and she was appointed to Epsom Girls’ Grammar as the first itinerant vocal teacher for the Auckland area, spending six years in this position. She has subsequently continued in private singing teaching.
    
  • Voice study in England with Professor Morag Noble of Trinity College followed Katharine’s participation in two New Zealand Dorian Choir European Tours. She returned to Professor Noble for further periods of study, specialising in European art song.
    
  • A strong interest in early music led her to several NZ National Early Music schools, specialising in Renaissance and Baroque music. This area has remained a central part of her repertoire.
    
  • NEWZATS (New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing) gave Katharine involvement with teaching at a national level, as Councillor, Vice-President, and most recently President, organising highly successful national conferences and international speaker tours. She has attended all the annual seminars run by NEWZATS, and her enthusiasm for pedagogy took her to London in 1997, Helsinki in 2001, Vancouver in 2005 and Brisbane in 2013 for the International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT). She also travelled to Boston and London in 1994 to observe vocal teachers at work.
    
  • A lively interest in children’s music led Katharine to teach preschool music classes and primary school music intensives, and present numerous seminars for the Society of Music Education and parents’ and teachers’ courses. She has also been a youth theatre voice coach.
    
  • Her growing interest in the science and anatomy of the voice, as well as a holistic approach to teaching has been encouraged by many seminars and tutors, including Jo Estill and Alison Bagnall, and wide reading. Her most recent vocal coach, David Harper(London), has also built on this aspect.
    
  • Katharine is in demand as a masterclass tutor, conference presenter, vocal adjudicator and choral voice coach (Auckland Choral Society and other choirs in New Zealand and United Kingdom.) Recently she has extended her voice work to help people who experience voice difficulty, and has run successful seminars on aspects of the professional voice.
    
  • Her musical career has seen Katharine involved in devising, scripting and performing hundreds of concerts and events. She organises and performs in Bandwagon, a schools’ music education programme which tours nationwide. As classical singer she has toured throughout New Zealand, especially enjoying the presenting of scripted programmes which make music accessible to a wide audience.
    
  • She maintains an extremely active performing career in recital, ensemble work and oratorio, which adds to the practical relevance of her teaching.