Celebrating Jo Estill's Life
If you have come to this page, perhaps you once met Jo Estill? She was an extraordinary woman who transformed many voices, minds, and lives in the span of her extraordinary career. She passed peacefully from this world on December 9, 2010. Her last days were spent comfortably at home under the extraordinary care of her daughter, Alice. Jo's beautiful voice will be missed, but her intellectual legacy lives on in the elegant and sophisticated Estill Voice Model. Two celebrations of Jo's life were held in January, in Santa Rosa, California, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Additional celebrations of her life are planned.
May 1, 2011, 2:00 p.m., in California, Pennsylvania, USA
Benefit Concert, The Mainstage Theatre in Seele Hall
July 22-24, 2011 (specific date and time to be announced), in Rome, Italy
This third celebration will take place at the Estill World Voice Symposium. Jo's daughter, Alice, and granddaughter, Kelsey, are planning to attend and will share their personal insights into this great singer, teacher, and scientist.
Options for Participation
As arrangements are made and details finalized, this page will be updated.
If you have any digital format photographs of Jo Estill in a jpeg or tif file, please send them to Alice Miller at aemiller49@comcast.net for inclusion in a memory album.
If you are planning to attend the US event in May, please let us know to assist our planning. Simply email us at info@estillvoice.com.
Estill Education Fund
We are pleased to announce the establishment of the Estill Education Fund, a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to the support of projects and scholarship awards furthering education in the Estill Voice Model. Donations to the Fund can be made in Jo Estill’s memory in the form of checks or money orders in USD made payable to “Estill Education Fund” and sent to the address below. A link for credit card donations made directly into the Fund’s account will be established and available here shortly.
"Why am I an Estill Voice Training practitioner? Obviously, I respect the quality of Jo Estill's research. She has produced a systematic approach to voice training that I have used successfully for the past twenty-two years in my work with undergraduate singers. It is one thing for Jo Estill to have been named one of the most significant voice scientists in the world today. She joins the ranks of many such gifted scientists. However, it is quite another thing to have fine tuned her research in such a way as to offer singers a disciplined approach that meets the demands of the profession today; namely, the ability to sing a variety of voice qualities with confidence, endurance, and artistic sensitivity. My colleagues and I think so highly of Jo Estill's work that we have developed a four-year undergraduate voice curriculum using her published materials. There is no greater "testimony" as to the trust we have in this approach to the training of the singing voice than to offer it to the next generation as a foundation for their professional careers."
Julie T. Fortney
DMA Professor of Voice,
Voice Division Coordinator
Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, NC
©2010 Estill Voice International, LLC | 55 Standish Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15228 | Phone:412-341-0316
