She is a hybrid vocalist, singing voice expert, jazz and contemporary voice teacher, and aural skills lecturer. Rachael is a graduate of the ANU School of Music, with a rare combination of jazz and classical performance degrees: Bachelor of Music (Performance – Jazz), Honours First Class (Performance – Classical), Master of Music (Performance – Classical), and she has recently submitted her doctoral thesis in the field of vocal pedagogy, jazz, and improvisation.

Her research interests include vocal pedagogy, hybrid vocal technique and performance, voice science, and gender in jazz. Rachael’s current research project investigated the interfacing of recent cogent findings in the fields of voice science, neuroscience, motor learning, and psychology with existing classical and jazz vocal pedagogies employed in higher education. The thesis proposes a pedagogical framework that addresses the vocal students’ simultaneous development of functional freedom, vocal efficiency and sustainability with stylistic and improvisational fluency.

Rachael is a member of the Australian Voice Association, Australia’s leading multidisciplinary association for Voice, and ANATS, the peak body for teachers of singing in Australia.

For more information about Rachael, her teaching, current performing projects and more visit her website: http://rachaelthoms.com