A Voice Apart

The Royans Professional Vocal School (a.k.a, The Royans School for the Musical Performing Arts) was founded in 1984 by my partner Ted Kowalczyk & myself. Prior to that, Ted and I performed as a duo around the Toronto area which was called Toronto Mini Caravan. Both of us were involved in multicultural events and had been highly profiled on multicultural radio and TV stations as well as performing at numerous CHIN Picnics. In 1983, a Veteran Toronto Polish musician named Stephan Pavliak incidentally overheard me playing piano and singing some Russian romances while I was awaiting in the lobby of the Academy of Music (where I worked as a piano and singing instructor) for my student’s arrival. He approached me, commending me on my talent and offered to help me out (along with my partner Ted) to open a music school which he thought I could successfully carry for many years to come. As of today, the school exists for almost 34 consecutive years. Unfortunately, my partner had passed away

Lately, we are witnessing a lot of shows interrupted and tour cancellations from well-known artists. Who is going to be next?? Sometimes, artists, during their performances, actually cannot complete the act they have been performing or even often feel that they will have to stop their performance in the middle, if not the tour altogether...  Every singer, intuitively feels whether or not they will be able to "lift" their performance(s) to achieve at least a reasonable merit, so to speak. All of that is because the majority of them do not have a solid ground of knowledge on how to power the voice and not kill it, or themselves in the process. Most Recently... We recently found out that Steven Tyler of Aerosmith had sustained a serious and extensive vocal injury, thus, needing to postpone Aerosmith's 50th Anniversary/Farewell Tour.  He had been diagnosed by doctors with a fractured larynx and damaged vocal cords. The damaged vocal cords can be quite treatable (especially fr

A lot of you are most likely familiar with the show that is titled “Hudson & Rex”. In our opinion, it is a very smart and intelligent show (truly Canadian), which possesses a lot of subtle humour… One of the episodes, as usual, about some crime taking place, was about the woman who wrote the book about her own invented diet named “Say No to Potato”...?    She ended up starving herself to death while documenting her own wedding… By the end of the investigation of what exactly happened, Detective Charlie Hudson was handed that very book, and yes, it was indeed named “Say No to Potato”. I found it extremely funny, but, nevertheless, quite to the point… In this case, concerning the human speaking and/or singing voice, I would like you to state; “Say No to Digital, Old-Fashioned Conventional Vocal Coaching, Let Alone Some Spoof of the Voice Repair” - that is if you do not want to damage or lose your voice for good. “Say Yes to Unique, Natural, Holistic, Alternative Voice/Vocal Coaching

Dear readers,  As promised, we would like to profile a few more people who suffered from one of the nastiest voice disorders - Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD).  First up, we have a testimonial from Zelda A - Spasmodic Dysphonia sufferer from Brampton, Ontario Canada: "I don't know where I would be if I did not find you.. I would definitely be doing a review with 100 stars if I could!...” Hope for the Future. “I found Diana by chance when I was looking for a more natural approach to my MTD ( muscle tension Dysphonia ) which, some time ago, I was diagnosed with by an ENT Doctor. I have been slowly losing my speaking voice for almost a year. I have gone to several doctors and also speech therapy without a solid resolution. It's like having laryngitis....X50, which never goes away! When I started working with Diana, she right away told me that my voice sounds like I have a  Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) . That was even more disheartening than the previous diagnosis of MTD. Diana right awa

 Yesterday, in celebration of Mother's Day, my assistant Vlad and I, finally went to see "Stars On Ice".  Before the Pandemic, I was attending those shows every single year without ever missing one!  Then the Pandemic hit and for two years those shows, like everything else, were unfortunately cancelled.  I have to say, that the organization of the show was better than ever - the technical elements like the lighting on the ice and lighting overall, were amazing, to say the least!  However, the skaters themselves were performing in a little less capacity and less quality than before, especially in the first part of the show.  The group performance synchronicity, in a lot of moments throughout their skating together, was sometimes just lost.    Some of them were doing, to say the least, very strange performances, and also, quite shorter than usual.  There were a few of them, though, which reached the bar, so to speak.  Number One, from our perspective, was a petite Japanese

We've been in business for almost four decades (Since 1984) and originally started it as a music school for children and adults.  At that time it was named 'The Royans School for the Musical Performing Arts'.  Then, a few years later, we turned it into The Royans Professional Vocal School, specializing mainly in singing, vocal performance and vocal recording.  Those years we taught a lot of musicians and wannabe singers. At that time, they were coming to us for one and only reason: To learn how to sing properly and make it as a professional artist. There were no "hidden" agendas to rectify their emotional stress and/or modify their lives (single or married). Nowadays, and for some time already, we started receiving a few groups of people... The first group of people was pretty much the same as in the '80s and 90's i.e. Coming to us for one and only reason and mainly to make a professional career out of this.  The second group of people, however, has been c

Written by Diana Yampolsky Let me tell you, my reader, that music is often called the world's greatest communication tool. An effective piece of music crosses national boundaries, and a good song transcends any language barriers. With that said, a common problem that I have found which afflicts many aspiring singers is that because they do not realize that singing is a great vehicle for communication - ideas, emotions, lust, pain, frustrations, love, etc. Through singing, you can communicate those emotions more efficiently and also, more personally than with any other art form - be it film, writing or dance. But, evidently, not everybody is able to effectively communicate a story through the musical form. Some of the artists, unfortunately, appear truly self-absorbed, self-centred and purely egoistic, to even being able to share themselves with the audience.  Needless to say, that they are primarily thinking only about themselves, their appearance and their voice. That's what I