testimonial
testimonial
''I continue to be amazed by the weekly results in my voice. Sue has been so supportive and encouraging.''
testimonial
testimonial
''My speaking and singing voice became more articulate, clear and flexible.''
About Claim Your Voice Studio
Sue Crowe Connolly is a professional vocal teacher and singer who is passionate about working with people who desire to ‘claim’, ‘find’ or enjoy their own voice and/or music. She has been teaching privately for over 16 years, and has thriving studios in both Hamilton and Toronto.
Sue learned her craft through a seven-year apprenticeship studying the training developed by the late Cornelius Reid of New York. She also participated in a master class and a short private study with Mr. Reid. She continues to study and work with other musicians and voice professionals to deepen her own skills as a teacher, singer, all round musician and choral conductor.
Sue is a founding member of Voice Builders, an association of colleagues who are committed to promoting functional vocal training as taught by Cornelius Reid.
Coming into the music profession later in life, Sue passed her Grade 10 Voice exam with Honours – and this as a singer in her mid-fifties!
In December 2007, Sue Crowe Connolly was contacted by Gwen Merrick, a speech pathologist at The Voice Clinic, St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, who had learned about Sue and her work. They met and together deepened their understanding of voice and how it works, especially for singing.
Gwen was able to show Sue how the vocal folds look (she saw her own… completely fascinating!), and Sue was able to demonstrate the various aspects that affect singers: a healthily functioning voice, and the unbalanced tensions of the tremolo and wobble.
Sue is on Ms. Merrick’s referral list as a singing teacher, working in a complementary function with patients who have vocal trauma.
In the fall of 2007, Sue was invited to join the respected Hamilton vocal ensemble “Strata” – finalists in the CBC’s 2007 choral competition. Also that year, she was awarded Platinum for a “Reader’s Choice Award” with the Hamilton Community Newspapers for “Best Musical Instruction”.
Sue is strongly committed to community-based music, and in 2013, she founded Hamilton Sings! Community Choir. Along with Hanna Mathieson, co-conductor, she lead this non-audition, mixed voice choir for adults and older youth until 2020. In 2014 the choir was invited to sing at Christ’s Church Cathedral for Super Crawl, a major arts and music event in Hamilton each September.
Sue is also committed to keeping vocal training accessible to all people, and offers scholarships to serious vocal students of modest means. She brings to this endeavour a 15-year background in communication skills, community development and counselling.
Sue has worked with singers who perform opera, classical, jazz, country, gospel, rock, pop, world, community and folk music. She especially enjoys working with those who are experiencing vocal difficulties, including pain, constriction, and limited or loss of range.
She has also helped teachers, university professors, clergy, storytellers and public speakers strengthen their voices for greater clarity and endurance.
In addition to private lessons and small group workshops, Sue has conducted workshops in Toronto with Echo Women’s Choir and Pax Christi Chorale, and in Hamilton with Strata Vocal Ensemble, the Burlington, Ancaster, Dundas Business Women’s Assoc., and Association of Administrative Assistants Hamilton Branch.
She also works as a vocal coach for the teachers of Rainbow Songs, a parent/child singing programme in Toronto, as well as with actors, teachers, clergy and public speakers.
Sue also volunteers as a vocal coach to the participants of the annual WorldSongs Vocal Camps.
Sue’s students have successfully auditioned for:
- Berklee College of Music, Boston, Mass.
- The international award-winning Hamilton Children’s Choir
- King’s College Chapel Choir in Halifax, N.S.
- Toronto Mendelssohn Singers of the TM Choir
- Toronto Chamber Choir
- Toronto Opera Repertoire
- Jubilate Singers
- Voca Chorus of Toronto
Hanna Mathieson, who studies vocal training with Sue, taught for the After School Opera Program with the Canadian Opera Company. She is an accomplished music teacher, composer and TDSB certified teacher.