Vocal
Animateurship

“Vocal Animateurship is where I walk my talk; motivating, leading, inspiring and coaching individual artists and organisations in every aspect of voice and business performance.”

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn” Benjamin Franklin

Learning about the vastness of voice pedagogy, vocal performance, business acumen and the industry has been, and continues to be, a driving passion for me.

In turn, I am also passionate about passing on the knowledge and creating learning opportunities to nurture emerging and established artists by creating performance opportunities and continued professional development events. Throughout my performance career it has been important for me to work within the heart of the learning and engagement departments in opera houses and theatres as part of their outreach projects that introduce young singers to the art form, ensuring a pipeline of talent for future productions.

Not only do I work with professionals in a workshop or project setting but also with audiences. I am always keen to find relatable ways to engage audiences with opera and other genres of theatre making it more accessible and enjoyable to a broader audience as well as attracting the next generation to the world of opera, classical and musical theatre training.

This journey has led me to work as a vocal animateur, connecting performers and audiences while stimulating, motivating, and inspiring people of all ages and abilities to participate in musical activities and creating opportunities for everyone to engage with high-quality vocal artistry through projects, workshops, and performances.

This work has included organising concerts for young voices to raise money for charities; working with communities in opera and musical theatre to foster a sense of ownership, inclusivity and connection to the art form ; conduct CPD workshops in other vocal styles to inspire artists to expand their technical and stylistic knowledge ; run CPD workshops for voice teachers to develop their cross-genre acumen both in technique and style; collaboration with other directors, composers and artists to conceptualise and present an operatic promenade experience in a non-traditional setting.

Get in touch

People and Projects I’ve Partnered with:

Glyndebourne Festival - Learning and Engagement and Glyndebourne Youth Opera

Tête-a-tête Opera Festival - Baby O and Singing Entrepreneur Forum

VocalAnimateur projects include:

Glyndebourne Festival Opera - training Glyndebourne Youth Opera for performances of Bizet’s Carmen in the Opera Festival.
Associated Studios London - VocalEntrepreneurship - Introducing the VE House Model and Industry Resources workshop for classical singers
Founded and ran Cantio Chorus with chorus master Gregory Moore a project based choir for exceptional young singers to raise money for the School Bus Project (offering mobile eduction for refugees).
Jazz workshops in Brighton for aspiring amateur and professional jazz singers with Danish jazz singer Sarah Oschlag.
Musical Theatre workshops for teenage aspiring for theatre school with international singing teacher and vocal performance coach Scott Harrison.
“The Sloan’s Project” - co-founded the opera company in it’s start up phase and for the first project co-directed the company with artistic director and founder James Robert Carson. Performed in the premiere of “The Sloan’s Project” by composer Gareth Williams and libretto by David Brock. A promenade opera reviewed in The Scotsman and The Herald and covered in the news by BBC Scotland.
Teaching CPD classes at The National Opera Studio, London for singing teachers to develop cross genre teaching skills and business development with Scott Harrison (International vocal coach and Head of Post-Curricular Studies at Leeds Conservatoire).
Masterclass and singing coaching with choirs such as Teddington Choral Society, London with Chorus master Sam Evans.
Contemporary Pop Workshops in Brighton with Aaron Newland Bentley international singing teacher and Academic Manager School of Drama at Leeds Conservatoire) and prodigious pianist, composer, musical director and musical theatre tutor at Associated Studios, Ryan Mackenzie.
Musical Theatre Workshops - for teenage theatre school aspirants in Brighton with actor and coach Matthew Collyer and Lyndall Dawson (Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre at VCA University of Melbourne).
Singing Entrepreneur Forum, London - Two day intensive as part of Tête-a-Tête Festival showcasing 12 inspirational speakers, breakout community work spaces for discussion and progress and a chaired open forum to discuss “Redefining Success” with co-founder Darren Abrahams.
Vocalentrepreneurship for Operosa - Montenegro Opera Festival, Belgrade - an intensive for opera singers (Operosa run by Katherine Haataja MAEd founder, artistic and general director). Singer, workshop leader and coach Darren Abrahams and mezzo soprano Claire McCaldin and myself led workshops on business, performance and identity in opera.
Baby O - participated in and toured a multi-sensory opera for babies created and composed by Dr Rachel Drury as part of Scottish Opera’s outreach programmes to New Zealand and Manchester International Festival.
Glyndebourne Youth Opera - facilitated three Glyndebourne Youth Opera workshops with an expert team on Discovering Opera (with Joseph Cummings (musical director, animateur, and pianist, international operatic soprano Sally Matthews and Travis Baker choral director, and organist).
Facilitated in new composition workshops and performances - with international Richard Barnard composer/composer animateur in Wales.
Theaterschool Textpierement, Netherlands - A residential musical theatre intensive training artists in all aspects of song, dance, acting with a full team of professionals (Scott Harrison, Erwin Van Der Wouw and Aaron Newland Bentley at the core) culminating in LCME certified exams. Astrid Radoes CEO.

The founders of The Singing Entrepreneur: Arlene Rolph and Darren Abrahams

Arlene Rolph and Gareth Williams - Sloans Project

CPD Teacher’s Workshop with Scott Harrison at The National Opera Studio

Teacher’s workshop at The National Opera Studio

Tête-a-tête Festival - The Singing Entrepreneur Forum

Glyndebourne Youth Opera - recording with soprano Rhiannon Llewellyn and pianist George Ireland

Kind words from clients & partners:

Dr Jessica Walker - singer, writer and educator at Royal Academy of Music

VocalEntrepreneur, with its Making Waves podcast, industry mixers and business sessions, offers vocal artists the invaluable opportunity to connect with one another, share practice and information, and find a sense of community. In these challenging times, it is just the kind of initiative we need
Darren Abrahams, singer, therapist and co-founder One World Orchestra

In 2012 Arlene and I came together to produce the Singing Entrepreneur Forum - an opportunity and invitation for classical singers to think differently about their careers and take back control in the face of shrinking opportunities, lowering pay and hierarchical structures. This was pre-Brexit, COVID, cost of living crisis, the rise of AI and the Tory war on culture. Over a decade later very little has changed. Vocal Entrepreneur is more needed now than it was even then! Arlene has developed a tool kit and process for vocal artists that gives you a new way to think about yourselves as cultural innovators. With unmatched experience, connections and a huge heart, Arlene is forming a movement that empowers and a community that cares. We need each other more than ever - Vocal Entrepreneur is the hub we’ve been looking for.
Bill Bankes-Jones - British opera director and artistic director and founder of Tête à Tête

“What you are doing is redefining success”
Stuart Pendred - International Operatic Baritone and Founder, CEO, and Artistic Director of Oxford Opera

What I love about Arlene Rolph and VocalEntrepreneur is that she cares. That comes through in her business acumen, in her attitude and the way in which she works in VocalEntrepreneur with other artists. She’s genuinely collaborative and caring of the creative person and the creative network, and understands that we need each other ; and that isn't always obvious in the way other people work within the industry. Arlene's own personal career speaks for itself. In her subsequent career in mentoring and encouraging others and the next generation of creatives, I see VocalEntrepreneur as a culmination of all of the things that Arlene holds dear, as an artist, as a creative but also, more importantly, as a person. This is incredibly valuable and I cannot recommend Arlene or VocalEntrepreneur highly enough as an artist myself, but also as the founder and artist and director of Oxford opera.
Elena Hope - singer, composer, vocal coach, trainee physiotherapist, Founder and CEO of Wholistic Vocal Support and Brave Spaces

I was fortunate enough to be featured in Arlene’s ‘Making Waves’ series when I began my new venture, returning to the world of theatre. Arlene not only held the space for me to express myself but also connected what my truth was as an artist to my business endeavours. Arlene’s vision is so needed at this time for us to flourish and redefine the arts from wherever we are creating. By developing VocalEntrepreneur Arlene makes the conversation bigger and bolder than it could ever be as a singular voice. Here we redefine ourselves and, with the support of VocalEntrepreneur find a way to own our stories confidently, so we can continue changing what needs to be changed and applauding the spaces that have given us the freedom to be all we are without restriction. Arlene and her incredible company VE pave a way for us; a new approach to holding your value through recognition of your ‘why’ in your artistry.

VocalAnimateurship