ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF SINGING (AOTOS)
Kathleen McKellar Ferguson has been associated with AOTOS for over 25 years when, as a young singer and teacher she attended their teacher training programme in the mid 1990’s under the tutelage of AOTOS founder members Margaret Hyde, Mollie Pietrie and Eileen Price. Kathleen now serves on the AOTOS council and is leader of a Scottish ‘pod’ group which exists to support local singing teachers by providing professional development, friendship and encouragement. Ours can be a lonely profession so my hope is that these events and get togethers will encourage each of us as we strive to stay up to date, perfect our teaching and grapple with some of the tricky issues that come into our studios. During Covid-19 AOTOS has been a wonderful source of help and support to many.
To date we have covered such topics as:
- “It’s only a larynx”. Teaching music theatre with Emma Trow
“Everyone on board”. Breaking down barriers to singing. Addressing issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion with Dr Kathleen Cronie. - Nicky Jane Kemp: How to prepare a student for ABRSM exams, how they are marked and the new 2018 syllabus.
- Osteopath David Macabe: Anatomy and Physiology and how to enable the body to work freely and efficiently.
- Speech and Language Therapist Moira Little: The developing voice.
- AOTOS Chair, Heidi Pegler came to talk about and brain storm ideas for Eurovox 2020
(which sadly had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic) - Heather Nicoll presents a workshop “ Being the best we can be” which addressed issues such as performance anxiety, mindfulness, person centred well being
Who is up for the AOTOS Masterclass?
Summer Conference in London with friends from NATS, USA. August 2023
Scottish AOTOS Area Day 2022.
Learning about teaching music theatre with Emma Trow.
Cambridge Conference 2022.
Our first in person conference post covid lockdown was just wonderful.
We were together again and the speakers were outstanding. For further details of online resources see the website
Scottish AOTOS “pod” meeting in May 2019.
AOTOS chair, Heidi Pegler came to discuss how we can all be involved with Eurovox 2020 in Edinburgh.
This is a very exciting event to look forward to.
Sadly ‘Eurovox 2020’ had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. This was to have been held at Stewarts Melville in Edinburgh in July 2020.