Dear John Special - The benefits of teaching summer schools

Published Tuesday 11 March 2008 at 12:20 by John Byrne

To complement our Summer Schools supplement, published on March 13, 2008, John Byrne talks to singer Lorna Marshall about the benefits of teaching such courses

The summer school experience is certainly a great chance to dip a toe in the waters of a new area of performance but this is as much true for the performers involved as it is for the learners taking part. There are, of course, a number of respects in which teaching and performing are already closely related - indeed there are certain areas of performance, such as stand-up comedy, where ex-teachers have done particularly well. However, for many performers who may have been the class clown or had a less than motivating school experience, it is not hard to see that getting involved in summer schools may seem less like an interesting piece of extra work, and more like the kind of job they got into the entertainment business to avoid in the first place.

For other performers, the barrier to considering teaching or leading workshops is simply the popular fallacy that if you are doing anything to make a living except performing in its narrowest sense, you are somehow not fully committed to your art.

Thankfully, there will be many top performers involved in this year’s summer schools who categorically disagree. Lorna Marshall from south London, in addition to having been a hugely successful Rafiki in The Legend of The Lion King for Disneyland Paris, is widely acknowledged to be one of Britain’s top jazz and soul vocalists.

“I’ve always seen it as my mission in life to uplift people with my voice,” she says, “and that’s what I aim to do, whether I am performing or passing on performance skills to others.”

In parallel with her own successful recording and live career, Lorna has been involved with many educational projects with Guildhall, Goldsmith’s College, the Covent Garden Jazz Centre. In addition to sharing the stage with the likes of Rod Stewart and Diana Ross, she has shared teaching and workshop duties with fellow British jazz greats such as Courtney Pine.

“I work on the principal that everyone has a unique talent, so just as I don’t aim to sound like any other performer when I sing, although I am certainly inspired by great singers like Aretha Franklin, I’m not aiming to make any of the people in my workshops and sessions sound like me or like copies of anyone else.

“My aim is to help them discover their unique vocal and performing abilities. I think many performers getting involved in teaching for the first time put too much pressure on themselves to know it all or be perfect, when in fact the most useful educational experience for students is communicating to them that this is a business of trial and error like any other, and giving them the confidence to persevere and explore.”

Lorna also makes a point of teaching students about the business side of the music industry. “I want to give them a chance to take on board, in a positive environment, some of the things I have had to learn the hard way. In an era where technology can be both a boon to young artists but also a substitute for real interaction with more experienced performers, the summer school environment creates an ideal opportunity to pass on the all important lessons of years of experience, which unlike techniques, can’t be learned from a book, a DVD or by any other means.”

• Details of Lorna’s teaching work can be found on her website www.lorna-marshall-live.com

• John Byrne is an entertainment industry career advisor and the author of several career guides for performers. Feedback and queries are welcome to dearjohn@thestage.co.uk or via www.showbusiness-success.com.

Listen/talk to John live on the Friday edition of Colourful Mornings with Amina Taylor 9am-12am at www.colourfulradio.com