I found Sharon Radionoff when I was preparing to do a gig after being out of the business for 20 years. I literally hadn’t sung a note in 20 years, and when I realized I had accepted an offer to sing in one of Houston’s premier jazz clubs, I panicked. What was I thinking? Not only had I been out of the scene for what seemed a lifetime, I was dealing with years of singing with no technique. My singing career began at the age of 11, and I had little formal training. The few teachers I did see wanted me to train me in an operatic style, and they knew very little on how to work with the style I was forming. I was listening to R&B, jazz and pop and I had no desire to change my style. After years of throat problems stemming from incorrect technique, finding Sharon changed everything for me. For the first time, I was able to relate to a voice teacher. She appreciates all styles of music, and she allows the student to follow their path on interpretation, whether it’s jazz, country, R&B, or opera. She takes you through the intricate and complex journey of vocal anatomy in every lesson, so that in time, it starts to become second nature. Once you begin to understand how vocal anatomy works, you can sing anything. Her knowledge of vocal anatomy is unsurpassed, and she makes it seem so simple. In fact, we still laugh during a lesson when the light goes off for me, and we both say “Geez. It’s so simple. Why do we make it so hard???” With her help and encouragement I’ve begun to change a lifetime of bad habits. I admit it hasn’t been easy because old habits are hard to break.

For me, her ability to explain technique so clearly and visually painting a picture for me, has helped me immensely. Not only has training with Sharon taught me how to protect my voice, but it’s made a huge difference in my sound. My relationship with her has had such an impact on my confidence that after being away from performing for 25 years and out of the studio for longer, I recently recorded my debut CD!

Diane Landry