My Story

I’ve been a lifelong singer, and a performing singer since aged 11. In youth I sung in several bands, was a singer songwriter and professional session singer in London. I started a music degree at Brighton but left after a term. I was never quite landed in my empowerment through all of this. Not quite at ease or at home in the forms of music available. I did grades on saxophone and music GCSE, but nothing seemed to help me understand and progress with music in a way I could grasp and progress with.

I left the music degree and ended up graduating in political science and through my 20s worked in social change innovation. But my Soul’s longing to sing didn’t die and by my late 20s was kicking the shit out of me. But how to be a singer in this world? The path wasn’t clear.

I’d been improvising all my life in a culture that didn’t. Finally, aged 29 in India, I saw someone else improvising. It was the violinist Atul Upadhye playing at the 30th Birthday Anniversary of the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune where I was studying.

The performance sent tears down by cheeks, put me into a trance state; it changed my life. Atul became my teacher. I called him my musical father.

Spirituality. Improvisation. These themes had been totally absent from by British musical youth, but when they were at the centre, I was on fire. “Stay and become an Indian Classical Vocalist”, invited Atul. But I wanted to do this as a Westerner. I came back to Britain and sought ways to  continue my path.

I studied with David Eskenazy in France; a jazz bassist and guitarist who had been super inspired by Bobby McFerrin and provided improvisation and musicianship trainings to vocalists. I was his student for 18 months. I then did a week long training with Bobby McFerrin in New York, and there met Rhiannon who was singing and teaching with him. I was mesmerised.

I did Rhiannon’s year-long course, All the Way in, in 2012. I got a scholarship for musicians in transition from the Katherine McGillivray fund, and my boss, who had paid for these other trainings, sacked me (because I was so obsessed with improvisation that I wasn’t doing all that much work), and gave me a pay off which, along with the grant, paid for the year-long and for a year in America before my green card came through. My American boyfriend and I got married and I moved to California. 

I spent most of my 30s in California, improvising, collaborating with The Elements (we recorded the world’s first entirely improvised album, Listen); taking ongoing lessons with some of the West Coasts Amazing musicians. I worked as a piano teacher and had a full studio helping children play and sing, and then studying, improvising, and collaborating in the mornings and nights. 

Alongside that, I was healing. Dancing with Melissa Michaels, Vision Quest with Nunutsi Tenipe, healing my attachment trauma and regulating my nervous system with Somatic Trauma healing with Sara Thiesman, drinking in the richness of Californian culture.

When I would visit Britain, folks would ask me to share what I was learning, so a day long became a weekend, a weekend became a weeklong, weeklong became year-longs. I moved back to Britain in 2017/18/19/20 (it took a while to fully come back), and I taught year-long vocal improvisation courses in Britain from 2018 until 2025 when family life and a changing economy mean that it’s time to re-configure how and where and when I offer my teaching.

Through the pandemic I poured all that I have soaked up; all the approaches to learning and developing as an improviser, singer, musician - into my app, Your Song. In pregnancy I added more courses, fleshing out the comprehensiveness of the Chops for Singers (music theory) trainings offered.

Back in Britain, my artistic path evolved; I released my debut album, Crossing the Ocean, in 2022. 3 months later I conceived our son, Robin, and am now going into the studio to record the next 15 songs that have since come through the improvisational pipeline.

So. This app and course can be a fun uplifting thing to connect you to humans, keep you singing a bit and support your wellness through community connection and singing.

And, if you want, it can be a masterclass in improvisational and vocal musicianship; ear based pedagogy; it can light the musician in you on fire, imbue your musical creativity with sacredness and community, connectenessnes, healthy wholesomeness (not capitalist, not toxic, not patriarchal, not competitive…. Welll maybe a little bit…. Hummmm) - authenticity, intimacy, finding Your Own voice, lyrics that resonate with your being and your truth, and upping your chops (skills with applied music theory) in the genres and styles that you love, and the shared language of music throughout.

I’ll be there. Will you?

With love from

Briony x