We need a data network that can easily carry voice instead of what we have today a voice network struggling to carry data.

Adele Adkins' retro-soul debut '19' was striking less for her songs than for that voice: a voluptuous slightly parched alto that swooped and fluttered like a Dusty Springfield student trying to upstage her teacher or at least update the rules.

My mother was an actress and my voice teacher an incredible voice teacher. My biological father is an actor and my stepfather who raised me along with my mother is a psychotherapist. I was always supported in creative ventures.

I'm sure any vocal teacher that listens to me would rather cut my throat than do anything - I do everything all wrong - but I think for me that's the best - because I don't think I have a voice so I think what I project would be style - if I learned to sing I'd lose my style.

When a music teacher that I had at school was taken ill and we had a variety show and I had to fill in - that's when I realized I had a voice.

For one thing I teach my students what my teacher for twenty years Paul Gavert told me 'The voice follows... the voice follows everything about you... who you are.'

I feel so very grateful to have the voice God gave me. It takes a lot of rest and training to sing and I was lucky that I found a great teacher when I first moved to New York.

When I had my first voice lesson I was 15 years old. And I had a really good teacher. This is what made all the difference. A good teacher will teach you the technique but also how to listen to your voice.

No voice teacher can be all things to all people. You have to gain information from whatever sources you can. You have to listen.

My art teacher in junior high was a very out gay man and a mentor to me. He would tell us about Greenwich Village and show us the 'Village Voice' and describe his life but it was all sort of subversive and below the radar.