About Noreen

Noreen Smith is a singer, choir director and a Level 4 SLS Vocal Instructor hailing from Western Canada.  She has a Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice from the University of Victoria on beautiful Vancouver Island.  Although Noreen’s academic knowledge grew during her education, she found that she was gradually losing her confidence in her vocal abilities.  By the time she completed her degree she could only sing for 20 minutes before experiencing pain and hoarseness.  And what she was learning didn’t seem to apply to the other musical genres she was pursuing outside of the classically-based school.  It seemed that she was missing a major piece of the puzzle on how the voice worked to its potential – until she had her first lesson with Dave Stroud and discovered the SLS technique: “I could do more after my first 30 minute SLS lesson than after all my years of vocal training!”  That was ten years ago and she’s never looked back.  She is now a Level 4 Certified Speech Level Singing Instructor (of 5 levels) and is eager to spread the news to the vocal community.

Though Noreen received her degree in Classical/Operatic vocal studies, she has had experience performing a range of singing genres including:  Jazz, Pop/Rock, R&B, Musical Theater, Gospel and Worship music.

Noreen, along with her husband Darrell, founded the Revelation Gospel Choir in 1999 – an 80 voice youth gospel group performing a range of music from spirituals to energetic urban gospel.  During her time as Director, the choir performed at sold-out shows, charity events and an International Jazz Festival.

Since 2001 Noreen, her husband Darrell and their three fabulous children have resided in the community of Thousand Oaks, California (just north of Los Angeles) where she has had the privilege of spending many hours drinking from the fount of vocal wisdom flowing out of Seth Rigg’s studio with the likes of Seth himself, Dave Stroud, John Henny, Greg Enriquez and Mike Goodrich.

Please visit www.speechlevelsinging.com for more information and for a list of SLS teachers in your area.