Introducing: The Lyric Diction Coach Database

I'm so excited to show you my new project, The Lyric Diction Coach Database, which I built to give classical singers an easy way to find coaches who work in languages beyond the traditional classical canon.

One of my favorite aspects of singing classical music is the process of building my comprehension of other cultures through their poetic, musical, and dramatic languages. At first, I was fully satisfied with the traditional French, German, Italian, and English with the sparkly addition of new languages here and there in my work with The International Orange Chorale (IOC) and The San Francisco State University Chamber Ensemble…but I wanted more! 🧜‍♀️

I wanted to sing in the languages of my ancestors (Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian). Yes, I know there is a lot of classical repertoire in these languages, but the support systems for singing in languages outside those of the traditional canon are lacking. For my masters recital, I sang a gorgeous Arabic set by Tsippi Fleischer, Girl Butterfly Girl, and it took months to find an Arabic diction coach who could really dig into the musical expression and articulation. As I prepared for my 2022 solo recital, Cycles of Resistance, I was faced with a far greater challenge: I needed lyric diction coaches for Turkish, Dutch, Czech, Arabic, Mandarin, and Sanskrit. After several posts on lyric diction facebook groups and googling just about every possible query, I started to gather some names, but I didn’t want to keep them to myself.

Why wasn’t there a searchable list? It seemed easy enough, especially when my husband (Jordan Eldredge) is a patient teacher of all things database, so I jumped in! In the future, I’ll write up a breakdown of how I built it, but for now, here is how to USE it!

It is fairly simple, enter the language you wish to sing in and check out the results! Results are ranked by the level of familiarity within the searched language so that native speakers appear first, followed by fluent, conversational, familiar, etc. If in-person coaching is necessary, you can search by location. You can also click on any of the language names to quickly search for that language. Once you find the coach you’d like to connect with, click on the “more” button to see their coaching options and contact preferences!

I'm constantly adding new coaches, so if you want to be included fill out this form or forward to your favorite coaches! Give it a try and let me know what you think!