I am an explorer passionate about the voice and the emancipatory virtues of singing. Vocal technique, the body-voice connection, the emancipatory power of collective singing and vocal improvisation are at the heart of my research, teaching and artistic proposals.

Between 2012 and 2017, I decided to train as a singing teacher while developing my artistic projects after ten years as a singer in different musical groups of variety, rock, and soul-funk. I then did six months of training on vocal coaching at the Atla school in Paris, then studied the science and pedagogy of voice for three years with Allan Wright (TCM teacher training) in Nantes. I also took vocal jazz lessons with Monique Thomas in Bordeaux and Bob Stoloff in Paris. I also continued to be on stage with my electro-pop project Layenn, the musical piece Concert Room and the improvised show Airs de Rien with the Nantes collective Les Paillettes.

In 2017, I went to study the physiological and acoustic principles of voice production in the United States with Professor Ingo Titze (a distinguished American voice researcher) for two months. I travelled alone from Canada to Bolivia for the next ten months. It was a refreshing journey, a whole of encounters which marked the start of a new page in my life. At the end of this trip, convinced by the importance of expanding my comfort zone, I took the opportunity to continue my studies in the United States. I obtained a Master of Music in voice pedagogy in contemporary music studies at Shenandoah University in Virginia. The teachers encouraged me to answer an important question: why do you sing?

This question highlighted my need to communicate, create connections, express my emotions, create in the moment, be in flow, and listen more to my body and intuition. Free vocal improvisation then becomes a new resource on the path to my emancipation and my quest for new, more global, and inclusive educational tools. I went to Rhinebeck (NY) and Berkeley (CA) to study CircleSongs with Bobby McFerrin and his team, completed the All The Way In program with Rhiannon in 2023, and the Leading Música do Círculo training with Zuza Gonçalvez, Ronaldo Crispim and Pedro Consorte in Brazil in 2024. I also continued to deepen my knowledge of the body in movement by taking Feldenkrais classes with Robert Sussuma and Fabienne Coupet. I also participated in a workshop on the alphabet of the body created by Molik Zigmunt with Jorge Parente in Nantes. I am now exploring the Axis Syllabus method with Claire Reid in Guelph, Canada.

All this research work is part of pursuing my PhD, which I started in 2021 at the University of Guelph in Canada. I now give courses and workshops in North American Universities and offer workshops in France and Canada, particularly a course called La Voix en Présence, which I co-host with my friend, stagecoach Laura Abad. I am also pleased to announce my return as a songwriter under the name iwa with the new EP ADN, which will be released in 2024.

I look forward to meeting you and seeking your voice of possibilities and creativity.

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* Contemporary and Commercial Music