REVIEWS | karouchka

"Karouchka is a highly experienced, warm hearted, empathic teacher with really good ears and a highly developed sense of where your voice is blocked. She then manages to provide you with just the right exercises and tools."

"Karouchka has been able to teach me, for the first time in my life, how to make the connection between my voice and my body. She has a calm and empathic demeanour, tremendous expertise and is well ‘attuned’ to my vocal difficulties."

"I always used to sing with a lot of tension in my vocal chords but now I sing using my whole body and my voice feels a lot better."

"Karouchka combines expertise and diligence with a great sense of humour which suits me perfectly."

"Karouchka teaches singing while at the same time teaching you stuff about yourself, in a very pleasant and safe environment."

"Karouchka plays the piano well and has absolutely no problem with a new song that you happen to want to sing at that very moment."

"I was looking for somebody who would be able to teach me to speak clearly. I’d had too many complaints too often and people saying to me: ’pardon?’ In one-on-one situations it wasn’t too much of a problem (and to myself I sounded perfectly intelligible!) but in a larger group I always had to raise my voice or even shout in order to be heard. Karouchka very quickly got to the crux of the problem: monotonous mumbling (the more tired I was the worse it got) and poor breathing. One might have thought that speech therapy would be the logical step to take, but in a short space of time under Karouchka’s guidance my voice dramatically improved. It’s simply a question of applying the right technique. Proper diction is a big part of that and practice makes perfect. I started to enjoy the whole process and, what’s more, family and friends started to notice as well: ‘…now that you mention it...I can hear what you're saying without having to ask you to repeat it.’ But now for part two of this story: The Search For My Personal Sound, the sound that other people will recognize as uniquely mine, which was a remarkable experience. It kind of went as follows: make the sound that’s within you, the sound with which you make yourself known to the world. It unnerved me, all kinds of stuff started emerging that I had hidden away inside myself. It was confrontational, frightening and at the same time very liberating. I won’t go into too much detail, suffice to say I found it, and I’m still grateful for that today. This whole journey wasn’t just about a boost for my voice, it also resulted in an enormous leap in personal growth as well as being able to let go of my past. In addition I learned that the voice is an instrument that, with regular ‘maintenance’ and TLC, does what you want it to do. Thanks very much again, Karouchka!!!"

'After years of not singing, I finally wanted to sing in an oratorio choir again. However, my (alto) voice felt rusted and heavy, singing was tiring, the parts seemed extremely difficult, I dreaded the upcoming audition.

Karouchka taught me to treat my voice as a kind of living instrument: the voice wants to be nurtured and exercised regularly to fulfill its potential. By singing the music under her guidance I learn about breathing technique, about the right muscle tension (of the right muscles...) and about just enjoying singing again. If and when necessary, there will also be an almost technical explanation about the workings of vocal cords, larynx and resonance thrown into the mix.

Very nice to have found a teacher who knows how to convey her enormous experience and expertise with humor and empathy. I passed the audition, but I will certainly learn a lot more from Karouchka.'(S.B.)