Talk #47

Emma Bonnici

Emma Bonnici is a performer, teacher and speaker. Her 8 years working in Poland with two multi-award wining theatre companies have influenced her work on voice and performance and this is coupled with her extensive vocal work and research that has taken her from studying at the Met Opera House in New York, to expeditions to meet authentic traditional-music singers in; Georgia, Sicily, Western Isle of Scotland and then back to New York to work with Jonathan Hart Makwaia - of the Roy Hart tradition. These influences are interwoven and are the material for her work on polyphonic singing as dramatic text and a means of excavating story, character and archetype - both personal and performative. Emma's work explores how to uncover one's own personal voice and stories and how these are inextricably connected with the body. This is investigated and discovered both through the technique of vocal placement, vocal resonating spaces and through physical exercises. Here Emma's work as a qualified Cranio-sacral therapist aids individuals in unblocking muscular and facial tensions in the body allowing new spaces for the voice to resonate in and old patterns to release. Emma has given a TedX about her vocal work called The Power of the Voice, she teaches both nationally and internationally, is based in London and continues to perform.