Priske Dehandschutter

singing & acting & learning

Happy hours singing along with records and making up stories in a cosy corner of the living room . . . I was a girl with a romantic soul, deeply stirred by classical music and theatre, with a great passion for singing and acting.

At the age of seven, I discovered my grandfather’s old trumpet. But after ten years of playing, I put the instrument back in its case for the last time and enthusiastically embarked on the solo singing and opera programmes at the Lemmens Institute, the Maastricht Academy of Music and the Flemish Opera Studio.

As I freelanced my way through my early years as a singer, my path took a turn towards theatre, television, and voice acting. New challenges followed, as I found myself between two worlds: a singer in the world of theatre and television, and an actress in the world of singing.

My studies left many questions about voice and singing unanswered. Is total vocal freedom possible? What is individuality in sound? . . . Ten years ago, my intense search for answers led me to the voice teacher Ingrid Voermans in The Hague. This was my first encounter with the world of sound and perception and with the voice teaching insights of the Lichtenberg Institute (Germany). The benefits this method brought me included greater freedom in singing and in life.

Inspired by my lessons with Ingrid, I headed for Germany, where I am now completing the teacher training course at the Lichtenberg Institute for Applied Vocal Physiology. In combination with training in traditional Chinese medicine at Karel de Grote University College in Antwerp and my studies of classical Taoist writings, this became my new great passion, centred on the very process of teaching and learning.

Eventually I let go of my struggle to find answers to all my questions. Instead, the wisdom of not-knowing brought new serenity.