About Victoria


Trained at the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Victoria Barbé is an experienced performer, academic and lecturer, with 25 years of experience as a professional singer/actor and teacher of voice within the genres of musical theatre, classical singing and opera. As part of her freelance portfolio, she is the newly appointed Vocal Study Lead at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music's Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) - a high-level training programme for talented young people aged 10 to 18 years old,  External Examiner for Edgehill University's BA(Hons) Musical Theatre Programme, and Workshop Provider for the Cumbria Education Trust Family Connector Project.

Student successes include gaining places at conservatoires such as Urdang in London, Mountview Theatre Academy in London, and MIAM in Istanbul, achieving Distinctions and high grades with ABRSM Classical Singing Exams, LCM Musical Theatre Exams up to Diploma Level, successful audition preparation for professional shows, and many students she has worked with over the years now have successful performance careers.


Victoria's performances have been in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, London Palladium, St David's Hall and for Chandos Recordings and under the batons of Sir Colin Davies, John Owen Edwards and Richard Hickox. Roles played include Mimi in La Boheme, Zorah in Ruddigore for the International Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, Mrs Beguildy in the Demo of the New Musical, Harvest Home by Bernard Irvin, Featured Singer in the Thursford Christmas Spectacular, and most recently as ‘Chorus’ for Dimitri Scarlato and Laura-Jane Foley’s short digital opera a lockdown project, A Life Reset, the performance of which, as streamed on Opera Vision, won the Rolf Liebermann Prize.

Since gaining her Licentiate to teach Vocal Studies (1999) and Honours Degree (2000) from the Royal Academy of Music in London, Victoria has taught privately with a focus on confidence building, exam and audition preparation, and across institutions in Hertfordshire, London, and Cumbria including course design and delivery for the City Literary Institute in Covent Garden and the Institute of Arts at the University of Cumbria.

After nearly 15 years of professional experience as a Singer/Actor and Freelance Singing Teacher, and having gained a Masters from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2007, Victoria was offered a full time post at the University of Cumbria Institute of Arts as a Lecturer in Music Theatre in 2014, and soon promoted to Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts in 2016 and Programme Leader of Musical Theatre, during which time she was selected as a finalist for Lecturer of the Year, achieved a PgC in Academic Practice, and gained Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy; culminating in 100% Overall Satisfaction of the students on the programme according to the National Student Survey for 2021/22 during her leadership.

Victoria has designed and written programmes up to Level 7 (Masters Level), sat on the validation panels for other programmes within the university and externally, led moderation processes, mentored students, directed musical shows, co-created new and devised shows, designed and delivered module content for performance-based modules and theory-based modules, and extensively taught singing in both groups and one to ones to support her students.

She has recently sat as an External Validation Board Panel Member for the University of Chichester, and University of Northampton with Stella Mann College and LMA. For a copy of Vicoria's full Academic CV, please send a request via the Contact Victoria page.

Keen to keep abreast of the best possible singing practices, Victoria studied Estill Voice Training with Anne-Marie Speed and The Voice Explained since 2008, and keeps abreast of the latest research available in vocal science pedagogies and performance psychology through reading of research articles, and through attendance of conferences held by the Association of Teachers of Singing, British Voice Association, British Association of Performing Arts Medicine and others.

Key to student success and at the forefront of all of Victoria's classes is inclusive teaching, where a safe and equitable environment is always present. This is achieved through her many years of experience and passion to engage with the latest pedagogical approaches, including the PgC in Academic Practice which explored advanced teaching approaches, and attendance of , and presentation within, seminars and conferences that share best practice.

Professional memberships include Equity, Spotlight, Association of Teachers of Singing, Singing for Health Netork, British Voice Association, and the Higher Education Acadmey (Fellow).

Victoria has a current DBS Certificate registered with the government's Update Service, and up to date Safeguarding training.

Professional Qualifications, CPD & Presentation Given

Professional Qualifications:

LRAM Vocal Studies Teacher, Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, 1999

BMus Music in Performance - Singing, Royal Academy of Music, London, 2000

MMus in Performance - Vocal Training , Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, 2007

PgC Academic Practice, University of Cumbria, Carlisle, 2016


Professional CPD/Training:

Internal CPD at UoC including Validation Training, MAB Chair Training, Teaching Practices, Software, Cyber Security, Consumer Law, and Prevent Training.
 

Singing CPD 2014 to 2023 : Workshops at the Voice Study Centre, Healthy Mind, Healthy Voice, British Voice Association, June 2020 Estill Masterclasses & Levels 1, 2 and Advanced– performed at & attended –with Anne-Marie Speed, Paul Farrington, Kiereen Lock and Ed Blake. Royal Academy of Music in 2008 and 2009, Bishopsgate Institute, London, 2016 to 2017. Estill Master Training 2016 to 2018 – fortnightly classes with The Voice Explained.


Black Lives Matter
,
Wonkhe, July 2020


Presentations given:

Addressing Sexism & Prejudice in Musical Theatre,
Carlisle Collective Fringe, Old Fire Station, Carlisle, 2019 


Enterprise in Action - bringing employability and Entrepreneurship to the Heart of Our Programmes
presented with Sylvia Grainger to the UoC Learning & Teaching Fest, 2017 

Empirical Traditions versus Autonomous Innovations, ARI 8, IoA, 2017 

Developing Autonomy in Practice from Level 4, a small Action Research Study, UoC Learning & Teaching Fest, 2017


Journals or Papers:

Burns, T., Desire, J., Gordon, J., McDonald, P. and Sinfield, S. (eds.) (2022) 'Into the Woods...A Tale of a Team', Say it with a story. The #creativeHE Annual 2022. Creativity for Learning in Higher Education Community, #creativeHE, (Story created by Beth Loughran with Victoria Barbé, Dr James Issitt and Tristan Poyser) DOI: 10.25416/NTR.21806085

Developing Autonomy in Practice from Level 4, a small Action Research Study, UoC for PgC Academic Practce, 2016