Our Team…
Stephanie Marko EMCI-TP-SD (She/Her)
“For years I searched for a technique that offered the ability to sing in different styles and genre without hurting myself (or my students). All my classical teachers told me my contemporary voice and musical theatre was “dangerous” and I should use the same Bel Canto techniques to sing them. This, of course, did not work. Even though I was able to change my voice quality and style for different genres, I was often told by teachers that I was damaging my voice doing so. After studying Opera at Melbourne University, Victorian College of the Arts and performing in the Opera with Opera Australia and touring companies, I found that I could no longer rely on my belting and pop qualities. What was going on?? I reached out to different teachers all over Australia and Europe, but couldn’t find anyone who could give me information that made sense!
More “use your diaphragm”, or “support more”, but they just made it feel strained. I stopped teaching for a while as I felt like I was lying to my students because what I was passing on was not working for me.
Finally, my mother saw an interview with someone who said that “Estill Voice Training” had given them the skills and understanding to create all different vocal styles in a healthy manner, with no aesthetic bias. I immediately found a teacher and fell in love with the work. I felt empowered as I was able to be autonomous and I never looked back. Now my joy is sharing this knowledge with others.”
Stephanie is a Estill Mentor and Course Instructor with Testing Privileges and Service Distinction from Melbourne, Australia. She has extensive knowledge in the application of the Estill Voice Model in a wide range of genre. She has taught the Estill Courses for over 11 years in Australia, Asia, Europe and the UK.
Stephanie currently teaches Contemporary Voice and Music Theatre at Popular Voice Degree at Monash University as well as with The Voice Gym. She also is a guest lecturer for “Voice Mechanics” and “Practise Strategies” workshops for all year levels.
Stephanie has taught children, pre-school to matriculation for over thirty years in schools, workshops and dance schools.
She has performed on a wide range of stages in Australia and Europe, in styles including Opera, Music Theatre, Cover bands, Corporate gigs - Contemporary (Pop, Rock, Soul) and Music Theatre promotion in Europe, Backing Vocals, Session Singing, Choral Work and Musical Direction of Music Theatre. This experience gives Stephanie the insight to apply Estill Voice Training over a wide variety of genres and the understanding of the needs of performers and voice teachers.
Stephanie's Musical Theatre credits include Grizabella (Jellylorum cover) in CATS, Denmark (in Danish), Gumbie/Jenny Anydots in CATS, Germany (German) and Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera, Germany (German). She also toured Australasia with Gordon/Frost's production of Hello Dolly, and Carmen (Stadium Production) with Opera Australia.
More recently, she was extremely excited to live her dream of being a “Voice Consultant” on the musical “Strictly Ballroom” at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne.
What People Are Saying
“Stephanie gave me so much personal attention and I really feel like in a week… she has revolutionised the way I think about coaching, music directing, and my own voice. Stephanie was perfect. So supportive, kind, made me feel taken care of and that she would have answers for my vocal ‘fragility’. She has given me faith that my voice is not broken.”
— Emma Weiss - Music Director, UK“Stephanie Marko is the most inspirational teacher I have ever had the pleasure of working with. My voice is now doing things I never thought possible and fixing various things that had been ‘drummed’ into me during training has had such a predominant effect in terms of purifying my tone.”
— Lisa-Jayne Rattray - Music Theatre/Lecturer, UK““Steph was incredibly articulate, detailed in her explanations, caring, thorough, precise, positive, and absolutely gorgeous as a teacher.”
— Jaqueline Gawler - Singer/University Teacher, Australia
Gerald Marko EMCI-TP-SD (He/Him)
I am a puzzler. Every puzzle piece paints part of a picture, and as an educator, I am vigilant of the fact that every student’s puzzle is different. Every voice is a unique instrument, and everyone with a voice is a unique learner. Every vocal task is a puzzle in itself, where some pieces fit together and some pieces don’t. I love attaching the questions “Will it work” and “Why” to each student, as it assists me in demonstrating that regardless of how complex the process looks, every puzzle is solvable.
My previous work in voice mechanics and my current work in education enable me to intimately understand how different triggers, methodologies, and forms of imagery can help all types of students, regardless of their puzzle-piecing experience.
Whether you are aiming to achieve excellence in your vocal performance, or you are recovering from a vocal injury, I recognise that a vocal journey is a challenging one. But having gone through this journey myself, I also recognise that with every challenge, there is the reward of knowledge, and the ability to look at your puzzle from a newfound perspective.
I find joy in learning alongside my students and dissecting their problems with them. I love watching each student build their own vocal identity piece by piece and I pledge to do this joyously, through experimentation and play.
The only thing left for you to do is to bring your puzzle into the Voice Gym and solve it one piece at a time.
Gerald is a Estill Mentor and Course Instructor with Testing Privileges and Service Distinction. Originally from Graz, Austria, he has been living in Australia 20 years. Gerald is currently enrolled in his PhD (Education, Monash), where he has embarked on an international, cross-disciplinary study bringing sport science, voice mechanics, psychometrics and tertiary learning and teaching together.
He is permanent staff at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music (Monash), where he holds the continued position of Scholarly Teaching Fellow. At Monash, Gerald is the unit coordinator for ensemble studies as well as the ensemble director for the Voice Tech Ensemble and the Musical Theatre Chorus. In 2019, Gerald's efforts have been recognised by receiving an Monash Arts Faculty award, namely the Faculty Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.
On stage experience ranges from lead roles in professional European Music Theatre (400 shows/year) such as CATS, Saturday Night Fever, Buddy Holly and Hair, to lead vocals in bands in Austria, Germany, Denmark and Australia. He plays piano, guitar, drums and bass, is a published songwriter with Universal, a certified Rei-Ki practitioner, has multiple licensed songs in 3 award winning American short films and is a member of AVA, ANATS, APRA (writer) and AMCOS (publisher).
Furthermore, Gerald enjoys teaching Estill courses in Europe and Australia to singers, teachers (i.e. at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Jazz University Graz, Raimund Theatre Vienna) and speech pathologists (i.e. Division of speech pathology at UQ, University clinic Graz).
He presented and performed at the Australian Jazz and Improvisation Research Network (AJIRN) symposium in Melbourne (2018), the 2nd International Jazz Voice Symposium in Helsinki (2017), the symposium for Performing Arts and Healthcare in Sydney (2014), was voice consultant to the Musical "Strictly Ballroom" at Her Majesty's Theatre (Melbourne) and is assisting singers through the recovery process from vocal injury in association with Australia’s leading laryngologists.
What People Are Saying
“Gerald is very entertaining and motivating and an extremely great role model.”
— Lena Mentschel - Singer, Austria“Gerald is an amazing communicator, and manages to explain highly technical and difficult subjects with ease and comedy. He's knowledge clearly goes beyond singing, and he melts his worldly and scientific knowledge in with his teaching to create a very holistic learning environment. He really cares about his students, and you feel very safe and nurtured under his instruction”
— Tim Knowles- Singer/Actor, Melbourne“Gerald was interesting, engaging, fun and explained everything thoroughly. He was approachable and I never felt bad about asking him anything.”
— Georgia Waters - Singer/Speech Pathologist, Brisbane