“Transformative. I try to be that teacher that really gets into the crevices of someone’s voice and really help the person. I absolutely love to get them singing free, open, and love – doing what I do.”
ILana, born in Los Angeles, Ca. is an accomplished voice instructor, songwriter and R&B and gospel voice talent that wows an audience with her expansive reach, powerful tone and honesty.
A natural teacher, and performing from the ages of 8-15 in festivals and full-scale musical productions in Hollywood, CA., she entertained and managed to home study as a child performer.
ILana unique vocal style has been linked to Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Brian McKnight and Alicia Keys, while her characteristic hold of phrasing and lyric delivery is singular. She describes her teaching method as vocal power and breath control capability, voice instruction with compassion and love. Her vocal gifts are enhanced through placement, dynamics, and song selection decisions, as she shares with her New York City students, who unmistakably develop a sustainable vocal skill set.
ILana entered Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music at 16 years old, on the first full scholarship purely for vocals it had offered. While performing in the coveted exclusivity of college life, she was in the company of the best young musicians in the world.
She went on to tour the world and as a vocal founder of a classical jazz quintet, sang supporting vocals for Barry White, Patti LaBelle, D’Angelo, Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Norman Brown, Rafael Martos and many others.
Performing and writing songs in English and Spanish for both stage and film, ILana briefly signed with Polygram Records before venturing out into a solo jazz effort that led her to activist’s folk calling and to explore her vocal piano style – playing once again – to in audiences in the U.K., France, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Spain, Chile, Ecuador, Turkey, Arabia, and Dubai.
At age 28, ILana founded the Vocal Workout Singing School in New York City’s downtown SoHo, and a unique approach to her growth as an educator and facilitator of gospel singing was born. Her influences spread to pop and funk and punk, as her students exposed her to realms of musical topics beyond her own personal experience. The results were magical.
Today, ILana thrives as owner and teacher at New York City’s most appreciated and growing vocal facility, The Vocal Workout Singing School, employing a cadre of world class teachers. ILana’s voice artistically draws an audience with it’s powerful, well crafted sound, but she loves most the belief in her ideals upon which she helps others to achieve their best and most acclaimed ‘me singing’ sound.
ILana Martin Vocal Tips for Emerging Artists:
1. Blend – Embrace energy on your notes and don’t over pronounce the words. You get to blend into the other band vocal harmonies.
2. Enthusiasm – Sing with genuine emotion because the audience knows what’s real.
3. Improvise – Find ways to be yourself. Every band member has his/her own quirks that make them fun to watch.
4. Accentuate your strengths – Capitalize on your strong points and know what they are. After you write them down, review the set list of each show mentally to find moments to share your strengths onstage.
5. Make It Big – When you have a spotlight on your solo vocal, make it into a big moment by commanding the stage with your energy and aura.
6. Live Open – Bring in life. Let the experiences you absorb during the days before the show come out under the stage lights.
7. Dialogue – Find the story in each song and infuse a conversation into how you deliver that in your performance.
8. Level the Crowd – Change the level you stand on physically. Sit sometimes, stand, dance, lean in toward the crowd, and change your height to change the audience perspective of the mood or setting.
9. Hit the Stage Warm – Even if it seems obvious, you should not skip out onto any stage without a 40-60 minute warm up first. If this gets your voice tired, then you are singing the wrong way.
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