I am the Voice Consultant for Channel 4 News and work with broadcasters who feature on BBC and Sky news channels.
I also teach voice, speech and communication at City Lit, the UK’s foremost adult education college.
Many of those I teach have a professional reason to improve their voice. But many more have social or personal reasons to want to work on their vocal skills.
My recent private clients have included:
- A newsreader who developed her pacing and articulation for fast bulletins.
- A barrister who improved his resonance and phrasing for greater impact and gravitas.
- A broadcaster who applied for Thought for the Day on Radio 4.A rapper who developed his articulation and variety and continues to get more bookings.
- An actor preparing monologues for auditions.
- A TV news reporter who needed accent reduction on certain sounds to become clearer to a national rather than local audience.
- An Italian actor who wanted to reduce her accent to achieve more general casting.
- A recovering mouth cancer patient who had to learn different ways of forming consonant sounds.
- A mother who was nervous about addressing her son’s teachers at parents’ evenings
I also work with organisations who want to improve their corporate communications skills through voice coaching.
Testimonials
Here are a selection of comments regarding the value clients attach to Vernon’s Voice Coaching approach.
“One word to describe Vernon – excellent! He’s a master at what he does.”
Vanessa Baffoe, Sky News
“Working on BBC Three as a presenter on 60Seconds news, where bulletins are fast, sharp and punchy, I genuinely believe I would not have been able to do such a job had it not been for the voice training I have had with Vernon. There is just no other voice coach like him – he is a truly amazing tutor.”
Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije, BBC Newscaster
“Vernon makes voices shine. I studied with him as a drama student but have used his techniques before job interviews, presentations and dates. With a trained voice you are more present. More than ten years later I still feel the benefit of his training.”
Oliver Horton, Writer
“From the start I felt encouraged and inspired by Vernon’s way of working. He combines a reassuring confident and powerful approach with a warm encouraging manner that made me feel safe and ready to take risks with my voice.”
Phil Joyce, Senior Gestalt Psychotherapist
“Going around the world and experiencing other teachers makes me appreciate Vernon even more. He’s honest, passionate and very helpful with what he does – and those are the hardest things to find in not only a person, but a teacher.”
Dudley O’Shaughnessy, International Actor and Model
“Vernon has been a fantastic voice coach and I don’t know where I would be without him. He was able to spot and correct all of my speech defects from the moment we met. The vocal exercises he tailored specifically for my needs worked wonders in helping me speak clearly, correctly and precisely. My problems with the letter ‘R’, my issues with pace, to name but a few problems, are now just a distant memory.”
Private client
“It is a pleasure working alongside Vernon at City Lit. He runs the Voice and Speech department with great professionalism and care. I appreciate the fact that he remains a practitioner himself, first and foremost. I believe him to be an indispensable asset to City Lit.”
Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, former Head of Voice: LAMDA
“I saw Vernon to get some help and guidance on preparing monologues for auditions. Not only did he fully understand my aims and work towards them, he also identified other areas of technique that I should focus on. The results so far have been excellent and this is largely due to his relaxed, yet structured teaching style. A really beneficial and enjoyable set of lessons!”
Gareth James Kennedy, Actor
“Vernon’s style of training is professional, focused, determined, thorough and pertinent. He has a no-nonsense approach which I appreciate. He knows in which areas you need gentle guidance and when to encourage you beyond your comfort zone. Being a CIPD qualified trainer I am not easy to please; I am yet to find something to complain about in a feedback form about Vernon’s work.”
Lauren Davie, Student on LOCN Accredited Drama Access Course, City Lit
Can voice coaching help me?
There’s no reason too big or too small for seeking voice coaching. Contact me for an informal chat about how I can help you.