Jana Runnalls has been a singer for over 40 years, beginning in the classical world in her teens and then moving into folk, jazz, blues, reggae, Latin and in later years, to sacred ceremonial chanting. From having lived abroad as a young child, Jana’s love of travelling and learning other languages took her to Paris in the early 70’s, where she lived for five years and played with musicians from many cultures and walks of life. The influences of Brazilian and African rhythms can be distinctly heard in her music and in her method of teaching voice to others. She also sang with jazz musicians, who encouraged her natural improvising abilities.

From Paris, Jana moved to London, where she teamed up with Rosemary Schonfeld and created the well-known feminist duo, OVA , who then toured extensively around Europe and the United States for 13 years. Their original material was both musically innovative as well as politically ground-breaking with it’s no-holds-barred approach to ‘outing’ women’s music.

Jana has been teaching voice work since 1983 when she co-founded the Ova Music Studio in London and began teaching ‘Voice Empowerment’ workshops both in the UK and around the rest of Europe and in the United States. The ‘Voice of Power’ vocal training method is based on Jana’s extensive experience as a professional singing teacher, singer/songwriter, performer, recording artist and sound engineer. The combination of her skills and experience has produced an understanding of what it takes to express yourself with ease – your body is your instrument and your voice is the window to your soul.

Her unique gift as a singer is the astonishing fluency of her vocal sounds – she can improvise and create vivid ‘sound pictures’ with her three-octave voice (check out her music website for her CDs). This vocal freedom comes from the wide range of musical tastes and influences, which she has accumulated and developed over her life as both performer and teacher. She has been lead singer in a band called ‘Wild Women’ since 1991 in which she has given free rein to her full vocal range, and has recorded three albums. Jana has also made many recordings of ceremonial chanting and drumming such as ‘Ancestral Dream’, ‘Speaking in Tongues’, ‘Lady of the Lake’ and most recently, ‘Sacred Home’. These recordings reflect her spiritual commitment to her work, and her chants are sung by many people around the world.

Jana has also has been involved in spiritual healing and alternative therapy techniques for the past 30 years, including Primal Scream group therapy, Alexander technique, acupuncture, crystal healing, Buddhist meditation, yoga breathing, Shamanic healing practices as well as tai chi and chi gung. Her teaching method can therefore be described as ‘creatively holistic’ – Jana combines both vocal technique with vocal healing to provide a singing method which is balanced and simple. She encourages all her students to stretch and find the tone colours and unique sounds in their voices, finding the power to support the voice from both breath control as well as emotional and mental focus. Jana’s skill as a voice teacher comes from her ability to support a ‘musical intelligence’ in all of us, which is the ability to LISTEN. When we speak, we express ourselves fluently - Jana teaches the art of the natural voice in a similar way and encourages and facilitates this vocal freedom as the basis of her work.

Jana Runnalls lives and teaches in Glastonbury, the “spiritual heart of England” and regularly travels and teaches workshops and courses around Europe and the United States.