A Human Touch, A Living, Evolving Art:

It's not so often that someone can say that they have made a real contribution to the art that he or she serves. We are both proud and humbled to add our own human touch to the enduring and ever-evolving art of Bel Canto singing, as our teachers did before us and their teachers did before them. Our gift to the art of Bel Canto is the message of storytelling.

Bel Canto is a singing art that must be imparted from teacher to student over time and intensive study.

In the historical manner of study, the Bel Canto instructor would have the student sing an aria or other song until he or she brought forth a particularly beautiful phrase sung with crystal clarity. At that point the student was instructed to repeat that word or short phrase over and over exactly as he or she has just done it, in order for the student to become accustomed to singing so clearly. Intensive work was also done with regards to pronunciation of words, particularly the vowels in the words. The teacher continued to guide the student with these disciplines until the student finally achieved the ability to sing clearly and consistently without vocal difficulties every time until he reached VOCAL FREEDOM

Storytelling as the Natural Way:

Perhaps our epiphany of Bel Canto Storytelling was our own Irish heritage and culture emerging as an integral part of our personal art and singing. After all, we Irish people do not need to be told what great and gifted storytellers we've always been. Everywhere you go in Ireland you can easily find someone spinning yarns on the street corners, outside the churches or especially in the pubs. Storytelling was a natural path for Frank Merriman to relate fully to Bel Canto singing.

Frank learned Bel Canto from Julian Miller in a strictly traditional and conventional way, but he realised through his studies that the singers whose artistry made the most enduring impact on the singing world were the ones who focused all their efforts on telling the story of the song. The true essence of the expressive Bel Canto singers like John McCormack and Jussi Bjorling came from storytelling. Telling the story was what allowed them to use their voices effortlessly in the most beautiful, powerful and natural way. Frank Merriman made sure to tell the story every time he opened his mouth to sing.

Telling the story helped him to remain faithful to the composers who wrote the songs he performed. Telling the story helped him to achieve and maintain his vocal clarity without overthinking or cluttering his performance and it made it easy to sing with proper pronunciation. Telling the story helped him reach his audience and touch their hearts with the true meaning of the song.

And his innovation to Bel Canto Storytelling didn't just work for himself- it worked for others as well. While Frank was a member of an opera company in D�sseldorf, Germany he gained a reputation among his fellow performers for giving good advice about how to sing properly. Whenever a singer had a bad night on the stage, he or she would come to Frank for tips on getting the voice right. Eventually over half the company was coming to his flat and paying him to work with them to help them sing better. He guided them to get their voices right by focusing them on the Bel Canto way of telling the story of each song.