We have a great range of teachers and speakers at IVACON 2023.

Kim Chandler

Kim Chandler is a renowned contemporary vocal coach & pedagogue based in Europe (Spain) after starting her career in Australia and emigrating to the UK. She has been a senior lecturer at two leading conservatoires in the UK for many years, but has been freelance since 2014, coaching elite singers: touring artists, artists in development, professional singers and mentors & trains other vocal coaches. Kim is regularly invited to lead training days, master classes, workshops and present at national & international voice conferences. She is the creator of the very popular “Funky ‘n Fun” vocal training series and her written work features in several books such as “Teaching Singing in the 21st Century” (Springer), “Training Contemporary Commercial Singers” (Compton) and her new “Chandler Curriculum for training pop singers” poster (Compton).

Kim is also a successful session singer with three decades of high-end performing experience, her voice being heard on films, albums, cruise shows and thousands of jingles worldwide and having performed at some of London’s most iconic locations: Royal Albert Hall, Downing Street, Wembley Arena & Stadium and Buckingham Palace

Dr. Nina Kraus, Ph.D

Nina Kraus is Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences, Neurobiology, and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University. As a biologist and amateur musician, she thinks about sound and brain health.

Her research has found that our lives in sound, for better (musicians, bilinguals) and for worse (concussion, hearing loss, language disorders, noise), shape how our brain makes sense of the sounds we hear. Her book 'Of Sound Mind' - How our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World, was written for the intellectually curious.

Kraus advocates for biologically informed choices in education, health, and society.

Kerrie Obert

Kerrie Obert is a speech language pathologist and singing voice specialist from Columbus Ohio, USA. She spent nearly 20 years of her career working in a busy voice and swallowing disorders clinic where she performed over 20,000 endoscopies and treated singers of every stripe. She holds degrees in both musical theatre performance and speech language pathology and has published research in journals and written or co-written four books on voice. Ms. Obert is well known for her research on tongue and twang quality and is excited to share what she knows about this most under appreciated structure, the tongue. Ms. Obert currently has a private studio where she treats patients who have voice or swallowing disorders and where she also trains singers.

Kerrie Obert’s Website

Jeffrey Skouson

IVA Master Teacher

Singer, producer, pianist, and top vocal instructor, Jeffrey Skouson trains some 150+ students from all over the world. Most students study at his studio in Las Vegas, while long-distance students (based in Asia, South America, New York, Australia, and England, to name a few) take lessons by Skype or other internet applications. With extensive experience as both a performer and educator, Jeffrey is a uniquely qualified and effective teacher.

Jeffrey’s abilities as a vocal teacher have expanded to many professionals throughout the music world, including bands such as The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Panic! At The Disco, and over 30 Broadway Stars.

Spencer Welch

IVA Master Teacher

After a successful career as a recording artist, studio musician, producer, and vocal coach, Spencer Welch is known for his ability to quickly assess a singer’s challenges, and prescribe solutions that produce healthy, marketable results. Trained by some of the top voice teachers in the industry, Spencer has been recognized as a Master Teacher of vocal technique by two of the most prestigious certifying programs in the world, including the Institute for Vocal Advancement (IVA) where he is currently the Director of Education.

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Spencer is often called upon to prepare recording artists and actors for studio, concert, theatre and film work. His clients include Juno Award winners and artists signed to Universal, Interscope, Capitol, and Integrity Hosanna.

Charlene Adams

IVA Ambassador

I love what I do and it makes me so happy to be able to share my passion with others. 

As a performer I was looking for ways to improve my craft. I tried different teachers and techniques over the years but still struggled with inconsistencies in my singing and performance. I just never felt like I could really trust my voice. 

In 2005 I found a voice teacher who taught a technique that changed and improved my voice in a way I never thought possible. I finally had the right tools to give my voice consistency and my performances greater confidence.

With a love for teaching, I joined the Speech Level Singing Teacher Certification Program. After certifying to a Level 3 Instructor, I moved to The Institute for Vocal Advancement to continue my education and certified to a Level 5 Mentor Instructor.

Now I am privileged to help so many students discover their natural abilities and reach results they never dreamed were possible.

Sue Kingham

IVA Ambassador

Sue Kingham has been performing and teaching singing in Perth, Western Australia, for over 30 years. She has been running her own successful singing studio for 18 years and was instrumental in bringing out SLS™ and IVA Master Teachers to WA. She has studied under some of the world’s top voice and vocal pedagogy trainers. In 2013, after ten years of training to the highest level, Sue left SLS to join the new Institute for Vocal Advancement (IVA). Sue became an IVA Mentor Teacher in 2014 and was made an IVA Ambassador in 2017; she served as the Area Representative (AR) for IVA in Western Australia until 2021.

Sue taught principal studies and performance skills for over 26 years at the prestigious West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in the Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance and Contemporary Music Education courses.

Darren Wicks

IVA Ambassador

Darren Wicks is a vocalist, jazz pianist and choral director with a passion for helping people achieve their vocal potential. His career spans 30 years and includes: work as a high school music teacher; work with community music groups; studio teaching; directing school and community choirs; musical theatre; university lecturing and teacher education.

Darren’s holds 5 degrees in music, including qualifications in jazz, choir conducting, aural training, a Master of Music Education degree and is one of a few contemporary voice teachers in Australia to hold a PhD in voice pedagogy. Darren’s doctoral studies looked at the practices of exemplary voice teachers and how these can be used to build models of professional development for singing teachers.

Darren has studied many different approaches to singing and music education; is widely-published; and regularly presents at teacher conferences and workshops. Darren maintains a busy studio in inner Melbourne specialising in vocal techniques for contemporary commercial music and working with artists, university and high school students. He also directs the Melbourne Singers of Gospel, a 120-voice adult community choir, that has achieved national acclaim for its soulful performance style.

Darren teaches on a variety of topics, including: performance, voice technique, correcting vocal faults, musicianship, sight-singing, ear training, choral music, music education. He has a special interest in mentoring teachers, teaching musical skills to singers and supervising academic projects. His musical tastes include jazz, pop, music theatre, blues, soul, RnB and gospel.

Megan Yates

IVA Ambassador

Megan is the co-owner of Yates Vocal Studio and teaches professional singing lessons and performance/style coaching in Utah and internationally via Skype. She specializes in Musical Theatre, audition training, pop riffing and stylization, and performance coaching. With over 10 years of teaching experience, Megan has trained hundreds of voices to sing with functional freedom and vocal balance. She is a Mentor Level Certified Instructor with the Institute for Vocal Advancement- an international organization dedicated to the education and integrity of voice teachers around the globe. Megan has an extensive performance background in National Tours, US Premiers, and professional theaters across the nation. She feels especially grateful to be following and living her passion of teaching singers to utilize their complete instrument and watch them dominate! And being able to do all of it alongside her incredible husband and business partner, Preston Yates!

Adeline Gan

Advanced Instructor

Adeline is a qualified, passionate, and committed music educator with more than 12 years of coaching, 27 years of singing, recording, and stage performing experience. She has the rare ability to skilfully deliver quick yet lasting results and never ceases to transform the voices of aspiring and professional singers.

A well-loved gospel singer in the local community, Adeline is also a familiar face who leads worship to an audience of more than 30,000 in Singapore and more across the globe through the online platform.

Some of her work includes fronting worship albums in English, Mandarin, and Chinese dialects. She has performed as the lead in the musical, The Love Story Of Xiao Niang. (2007), and on local Television Christmas Showcase, The Christmas Wish (2003). She has also collaborated as a solo artist in album recordings with renowned gospel artists and labels like Bob Fitts for Integrity Music and Hillsong (Hillsong Global Project) (2002, 2013). In recent years, she has recorded music videos that are well-received in the churches of China and Taiwan (2015, 2017).
Since the founding of Adeline Gan Vocal Studio in 2018, she has inspired and trained over 380 singers through her individual and small-group lessons. Plus hundreds more through her vocal workshops, placing a strong emphasis on IVA singing techniques.

Challenged with vocal damage and health issues in 2007-2011, she has emerged as a change-maker at heart, a vocal coach with a wealth of real-life stage experience, and able to empathize with her clients' struggles and performance anxieties.

One of her current clients includes Taiwanese/China Celebrity, Angela Zhang who has requested constant support from Adeline for her live shows and tours in China. (2019-2021)

Her continual mission is to educate and inspire while building confidence and unlocking the greatest potential in every singing voice. 

Alexandra Pengler

Alexandra studied rock/pop/jazz vocals with Udo Dahmen, the founder of the Pop Academy in Mannheim, Germany. Alexandra has been an active singer and vocal coach in Hamburg, Germany, since 2000. She also lives and works in Malmö, Sweden. 

Her passion for Irish music brought Alexandra to Ireland in 2004. There she performed and taught voice lessons and successfully prepared many singers for shows in Disneyland Florida, Paris, and London West End. In 2004, she was introduced to the Speech Level Singing Method™ (SLS), which is the pioneer of the Institute for Vocal Advancement (IVA). 

While she continues her vocal and pedagogical training in IVA, she also takes lessons with voice coaches such as Rob Stevenson (Rihanna, Justin Timberlake), and works with clients worldwide. Her classes take place online or in her studio in Hamburg City, as well as in the Music Lounge in Hamburg.

Alexandra also works in recording studios and helps touring artists to reach their highest vocal potential. She enjoys working as a studio singer for productions of Six Feet Under (HBO), an American TV series, in cooperation with her producer team from Proofsound Music Productions in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Sonic Librarian in Los Angeles, California.

Alexandra loves cats, yoga, wine, and traveling.