Basic Principles

Every healthy human being is born with the ability to breathe and to give voice. These primary life functions are the physiological basis of the art of singing, and they cannot be directly taught. Like a reflex, they cannot be made to happen, but only allowed to happen. We cannot consciously direct them without disturbing their spontaneous response.

If we want singing to be physically free and emotionally, artistically true, it is therefore not necessary to instruct so much as to clear away obstacles to the automatic functioning of the body. The Szamosi approach is a precise but gentle process of giving up excess tension and undue force in the context of singing. In this process, our breathing can become genuinely responsive to music as we feel and imagine it, and technical fluency unfolds as a result. As obstacles fall away, it becomes easier to discover the heart of the music, and our own true expression.

The Szamosi approach is a school of thought at the core of which are certain artistic and methodological principles. It is a specific approach, but it is not "a method", i.e. a fixed set of exercises or procedures. Many different methods may be in keeping with the principles of the Szamosi school, but they do not define it. To teach this way requires constant attention and creativity on the part of the teacher, the ability to listen sensitively to the student on all levels, and an openness to adapt at any moment to the student's needs.