About Owen
The background
When I was studying for my MA at York, I developed primary muscle tension dysphonia. I lived with it for several years and continue to manage it. I went looking for the kind of help I needed and discovered first-hand how patchy and confusing the landscape really is for a working singer in functional difficulty. Some of what I found was genuinely useful. A lot of it wasn't. There were stretches where I didn't know whether I'd be able to keep singing professionally.
My MA dissertation became my first attempt to make sense of what I was finding. I wrote on the lack of vocal health education in tertiary music education in the UK — how little of this stuff most singers actually receive at conservatoire and university level, and what the consequences are for working voices. The research was thorough. The conclusion was uncomfortable: the system mostly assumes singers will pick this up by osmosis, and they don't.
That experience reshaped what I wanted my career to be. The work I most want to do now is the work I needed when I was struggling — careful, evidence-based, and built around the lived reality of how a working voice actually behaves under load. It's also why I'm careful about scope. I know what it feels like to be passed between practitioners who don't quite have the right tools, and I'd rather refer you on than do that to anyone else.
Training and accreditations
My foundational training is an MA in Vocal Studies from the University of York. Since then I've qualified as a Vocal Health First Aider with Vocal Health Education, trained as a Vocal Massage Therapist at the Voice Care Centre, and I'm currently part-way through VHE's Vocal Habilitation Professional qualification — the leading practitioner-level training in the UK for non-clinical voice work.
I'm an accredited member of Vocal Health Education, and a member of the British Voice Association and the Association of Teachers of Singing.
Performing life
Alongside the coaching practice, I sing as Tenor 2 with the five-time Grammy-winning vocal group The Swingles, and co-direct the London-based session vocal agency Infinite Vocals — recent credits include the Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood and the 2025/26 theatrical releases Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge. I also work as a freelance session singer and church deputy around London.
The performing work matters to the coaching work in a practical way. It keeps me current on what professional voice use actually feels like under high demand, what recovery patterns look like across a tour, and what's happening in the rehearsal rooms my clients are walking into. It also keeps me honest. When something I'm asking a client to do isn't realistic for a working singer, I tend to find out fast, because I'm doing the same job they are.
Outside the studio
I absolutely love travel, and I'm rarely in one place for more than a month at a time — most of my year is split between London, Germany, and detours around the rest of Europe. When I'm at home I climb, play a lot of video games, and host the occasional board games night. I originally trained on the trombone before settling on singing, and still play now and then.