International Centre for Voice

The International Centre for Voice (ICV) was established in 2000 at the Central School of Speech & Drama, to serve the professional development of teachers of voice and speech.

Please see the ICV facebook page for news and notifications.  For full details of ICV activities and workshops see the ICV website.

Initial ICV membership services to voice practitioners are:

  • workshops hosted by Central and run by leading voice practitioners at a discounted price
  • on on-line forum for members
  • space at Central for a Community Evening approximately six times a year for members to meet, share technical and social news, exchange best practice and provide mutual support and advice, particularly for sole practitioners/freelance professionals.

To request a Membership Application Form, please email icv@cssd.ac.uk

ICV mission statement

The vision for the future of the International Centre for Voice (ICV) is based on three core aims:

1. To create and maintain a professional forum resource base and network for teachers and other interested professionals by establishing:

  • formal links with allied professional organisations
  • an international directory for voice teachers
  • a website and discussion group.

2. To provide training and professional updating for voice teachers by offering:

  • refresher courses and further specialist training for established teachers of voice and speech
  • an advice and consultancy service for voice teachers working across the spectrum of voice teaching: voice and dialect coaching in the professional theatre; voice and speech in actor training; voice and song; voice and movement; voice and speech with professional voice users; and voice and speech for personal development.

3. To promote research and development in the field of voice training by establishing:

  • a journal for the documentation and dissemination of good practice across the spectrum of voice teaching.

It is intended that ultimately all these facets will be operational. However, it is prudent in the current climate to grow slowly, only expanding as our membership (and thus funding and volunteer workforce) permit.

As an initial step, the ICV will pursue the following administrative activities:

  • provide Membership Secretary services, promote ICV and recruit new members
  • arrange and administrate three workshops per year, hosted by Central School of Speech & Drama
  • create an on-line forum for members
  • provide space at Central for a Community Evening approximately six times a year for members to meet, share technical and social news, exchange best practice and provide mutual support and advice, particularly for sole practitioners/freelance professionals.

This year, the ICV is running a 4-week workshop at Central with Jane Boston and Annie Ruth.
Ritual, Purpose and Viewpoints in Action
- a four-week immersive summer workshop with international director and performance theorist Annie Ruth, the ex-principal of New Zealand's leading drama school, Toi Whakaari.
6 August - 1 September 2012

This workshop will utilize recent research in which the principles behind Maori ritual frameworks are applied to theatre contexts, along with Ann Bogart’s vocal and physical frameworks and other key voice processes. The focus will be to explore the freest, most ‘purposeful ‘modes of presenting language and of preparing performers for an eventual showing to an audience. For more information click Viewpoints. 

In the summers of 2013 and 2014 the ICV is hosting the first European
Fitzmaurice Voicework® Certification Programme at Central.
29 July - 23 August, 2013 & 28 July - 22 August, 2014.

Catherine Fitzmaurice has trained over 200 teachers in the USA since she moved there after 3 years of studying and then teaching at CSSD under Cicely Berry. She and teachers she has trained have since taught at Yale, Harvard, NYU, Juilliard, and many of the conservatories, theatres, educational theatre departments, and private studios in the USA and abroad on six continents, and increasingly in Europe

The Certification Programme offered by Catherine Fitzmaurice and a select team of her teachers is an in-depth practical study of Catherine's "Destructuring/Restructuring" arc - which reduces tension and unhealthy habits of respiration and vocalisation and replaces them with healthy habits for optimal vocal function - followed by an exploration of the  applications of the work to singing, speech, voice with movement, text and improvisation, performance, presentations of all kinds, and practice teaching this material.

For more information see Voicework.

The ICV must be largely self-funding. It follows, therefore, that a critical mass of membership fee income must flow to provide the necessary resources for this activity. It is hoped that all interested voice practitioners will put as much effort as they are able into helping us to recruit members. Should any practitioners feel able to commit any time as volunteers towards the work of ICV, even if it is only working from home, any small contributions (a few hours per month) would significantly assist.

Please email icv@cssd.ac.uk or call +44(0)20 7449 1571, if you are interested in this opportunity.

After a formal launch a review of membership activity will take place after an 18-month period, at which time it will be assessed whether additional services might be added.

To request a ICV Membership Application Form, please email icv@cssd.ac.uk.