On October, 1, the BC Choral Federation hosted a Zoom session to explore the benefits and challenges of singing with masks. An archival video is now available below, along with examples and resources.

Thanks to presenters Fabiana Katz, Ian Bullen and Joan Fearnley for joining BCCF Project Manager Brigid Coult in the delivery of this timely information.

RESOURCES

Check out Fabiana’s follow-up series of video exercises to improve resonance, projection, support, diction and breathing while singing with a mask.

Fabiana Katz holds a Masters of Music in choral conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.  

An accomplished mezzo-soprano, Fabiana is a singer and often-soloist with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and has appeared as soloist with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Berkshire Choral Festival, Symphony Nova Scotia, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, and the CBC Radio Orchestra, among others.

Fabiana was founder of the Ad Libitum Vocal Ensemble (Calgary, Alberta); Fusion Latina (Vancouver, BC), Canada’s unique choral ensemble dedicated to the popular music of Latin America; the Kallisto Trio; and co-founder of the Stellaria Vocal Ensemble. She has also led Vancouver’s Jubilate! Chamber Choir,  Vivaldi Chamber Choir and VoiceScapes Singers and Players (Calgary, AB). 

Fabiana’s training as a singer, her knowledge of vocal technique, and her intuitive and empathic nature deeply inform her work with choral singers.  Her approach to vocal pedagogy is holistic and organic, her first priority always to reveal and ease tension in the body, releasing trapped sound energy and achieving a free, more resonant voice and greater physical relaxation. Most importantly, she begins and ends with the making of music, allowing the intention and need to express and communicate to engage the technique naturally. 

Fabiana loves to laugh, and her strong sense of humour is an integral part of her nature, imbuing her relationships with people, whether personal, in the vocal studio or the choir. She has a boundless love for music and music-making and her enthusiasm for music is contagious.  Fabiana believes singing is a fundamental element of our “human-ness” and that we all can, should – and must – sing. It’s an absolute necessity for our emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual well-being.