Davina M.

Over Davina M.

The reason why I like teaching is simple: I was born with some talent, but nothing came easy to me. I had to work hard on each and every aspect to develop a professional level and, even more important, my artistic personality. The challenges I went through allow me now to understand the student and how to help him/her in its personal way (everyone needs a different, personalized learning path). Also, getting to know our voice always turns out, in my experience, to be incredibly interesting and funny!

My name is Davina, I am from Italy, I have been living in Rotterdam for 5 years now and I am graduated from Codarts - University for the Arts. What I love the most about music is the energy it creates and spreads; the fact that, no matter what style we are talking about, it creates opportunities for people to connect and share that chemistry which is only possible through interaction. Our voice is an incredibly fragile and beautiful instrument, which makes us vulnerable because it comes from deep within us. Therefore, it is a more complex instrument to understand (we cannot see it nor touch it) and yet it allows us to communicate feelings in a very intense way. So, in my lessons, I like to focus on: the discovery of our inner instrument, its mechanisms and how to control them to make them functional to the performance; the method which allows us to approach any new tune, learn it quickly so that we can focus on challenging aspects, expressivity, articulation of sound and syllables, exploring the many ways to sing the same tune to finally make it our own song.

I met many teachers along the way, attended many masterclasses (among which Berklee College of music Clinics, The vocalist studio by Robert Lunthe, Barry Harris, Michael League), gave exams for the London College of Music. Finally I started performing a lot and with many different organics (Big Band, small ensembles, on my own vocals/guitar, duo’s) and gave and keeps on giving me versatility, inspiration, challenging me in the most positive way!

Another instrument that has always been part of me is the guitar: I started studying classical guitar when I was 9 years old and along the path I had lessons about acoustic and electric guitar, learning comping styles as bossa nova, swing, finger-style, pop comping and strumming. This way I learned: to combine voice and guitar to comp myself and be able to play "solo" concerts; to use the guitar to write my own music as a singer-songwriter.

Along with my practical subjects I needed to implement music theory studies of course. I gave exams for London College of Music for this subject as well. So, as regards harmony/music theory, I can help you whether you are a beginner or a student with basics who wants to broaden and elaborate on its knowledge.

So! I am really looking forward to meeting you for a trial lesson. I will be there to listen and understand what are your wishes and goals.