Brian Vollmer Bel Canto Vocal Instructor

SOME OF MY STUDENTS (PAST & PRESENT):
Morgan & Mercedes Lander (KITTY)
Sarah Smith
Aaron Ambrose/Michael Lavereau (Moondog Uproar)
Gord Prior (Blu Bones)
Stephanie McIroy
Callie McCullough (The Wildflowers)
Pete McCauley (Teenage Head)
John Patterson (Before the Damned)
AND MANY MORE LOCAL SINGERS & ENTERTAINERS

B IO

Brian’s note: To know my bio, you have to know the story of how I came to meet my teacher Ed Johnson, an event that was to forever change my life.

HOW I MET ED JOHNSON:
In 1975, after only singing for a little over a year on the Ontario bar circuit, an ear/nose/&throat specialist diagnosed me with having “nodes” on my vocal chords. I was advised to give up singing forever or risk losing even my talking voice. I was devastated. My manager sent me to a voice coach named Edward Johnson, who taught voice lessons out of the basement of a little church in Hamilton, Ontario. He took me aside and said to me, “Don’t worry about your nodes. Just do what I tell you to do and they will go away”.
And they did! Not only that-I went on to earn four gold and two platinum albums with my band Helix, tour all over the world with some of the greatest acts in rock and roll, and sell nearly 2,000,000 albums/CDS. Not bad for a guy who was never supposed to sing again! Not only did my nodes go away, but my voice got better in EVERY aspect.
Over the next 25 years I would study with Ed Johnson, finally becoming a teacher myself in 1988. Again Ed Johnson coached me through it. Today I’m one of the last people in the world to teach what I call “true” Bel Canto-and I owe it all to Ed Johnson.

A LITTLE HISTORY ON ED JOHNSON :
Ed Johnson was born in Fergus, Ontario and knew from an early age the only thing he wanted in life was to be a singer. Singing was his life, and at an early age he moved to New York City and became the youngest member of the New York Metropolitan Opera, as well as the tenor soloist for Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking”. While in New York he searched for a voice teacher to teach him the old Italian method of singing called “Bel Canto” or “Beautiful Voice”. He went through numerous coaches, until finally he found what he was looking for-in an opera singer who sang not in opera, but in Vaudeville-Giuseppe Giuffrida-a transplanted Italian tenor.

Ed said, “He had a voice you’d swear was Caruso’s and he was brought up in the old Bel Canto technique that hardly anyone knew anymore…it was miraculous to find someone like that.”

Guiffrida’s lessons helped Ed prepare for a variety of roles at the Met until 1959 when Ed’s wife suddenly died of cancer. He abruptly quit the opera and moved back to Canada, where eventually he began teaching, usually to rock, pop, or country singers who were losing their voices from the grueling rigors of touring the bar circuit.

For this he was “poo-pooed” by the classical community, to which Ed replied, “If anyone needs vocal lessons, it’s pop, rock, and country singers!”

Ed became the most sought after vocal coach in Southern Ontario with a waiting list of people trying to get in to see him. His students included Beverly DiAngelo, Gil Moore of Triumph, Andy Curran of Coney Hatch, Ian Thomas, and Daniel Lanois, just to mention a few.

HOW I BECAME A TEACHER:
From 1988 to 2008 when Ed Johnson died, I would make a weekly trek from where I lived in London, Ontario to Ed’s 3 story walk-up in downtown Fergus, Ontario. Ed would council me on problems I was having with my students. It was through these sessions that stretched over 30 years that I gained the knowledge to teach the technique. That, and teaching many, many students between 1988 and the present. Each one helped me to understand the technique better, and to teach at a confident level.

WHAT IS BEL CANTO?
Bel Canto has been called “The maximum effect for the minimal amount of effort”. It is based on physics and how the body works. Bel Canto is also based on “cause and result”-in other words, if you do what you’re supposed to do, you should expect a certain result. It is not a crash course in learning how to sing (there is no such thing in my opinion)
However, learning this technique will increase range, resonance, control, tonal quality, and prevent sore throats. Although this is a classical technique, the same principles apply to all genders of music, and I teach singers in country, rock, pop, and classical. I teach technique, not songs. A house is only as strong as the foundation it is built on; the principles of Bel Canto act as the foundation upon which to build your voice.

Lessons are strictly one on one taught at “Planet Helix”, Brian’s private residence, located in the East end of London, Ontario.

CAREER HIGHLITES
Over the years my band HELIX has toured the world with some of the greatest names in rock and roll. We’ve also earned ourselves four gold and two platinum albums in Canada, and sold close to 2,000,000 albums/CDs world-wide. We’ve also had a Number One album in Sweden (Long Way to Heaven/1985) and toured Europe several times, the first being with KISS in 1983. The band continues to record and tour to this day. 2013 sees them on the MONSTERS OF ROCK BOAT CRUISE in March (www.monstersofrock.com), four Alberta casino dates in June, and summer festival dates including Rock the Park in London, Ontario with Whitesnake, Journey, and Platinum Blonde.

For all you ever wanted to know about Helix, go to www.planethelix.com
To find out more about Bel Canto and what Brian teaches, go to: http://www.brianvollmer.com/
To email Brian: [email protected]