EMT Spotlight: Njeri Weth
This Estill Master Trainer spotlight features, Njeri Weth, an Estill Master Trainer based in Spangenberg, Germany. Njeri is a freelance singer & songwriter and a consultant for concert tours and gospel concerts.
Where did you grow up?: Münster, Germany.
Why you do you love Estill Voice Training?: I love EVT for its clear structure and it works! I am a classically trained artist and EVT it gives me the freedom to make artistic and aesthetic choices in any genre I want to step into, especially Belting in Gospel. My voice is healthier than ever and I can rely on it every day as a soloist as well as a college lecturer.
What do your students (or yourself) gain from using Estill Voice Training?: The hand signals help my students extremely well for keeping the focus on a certain structure during exercises and performances. This helps them to gain more and more trust in their abilities. Especially men learn incredibly fast to use their high register. The results are amazing.
Biggest professional challenge: To know and monitor when is the right time for “digital detox”. So much planning and communication takes place via digital messengers. I often switch off my mobile devices and simply enjoy the analog life.
Last book read: “The Estill Voice Model” by Kimberly Steinhauer, Mary McDonald Klimek and Jo Estill
Person you would most like to have dinner with: Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) who was the founder of the Green Belt Movement. Her origin is Kenyan, like my father’s. She received the 2004 Noble Price.
Favorite performer: Stevie Wonder, especially the album “Songs in the key of life” from 1976. And Ella Fitzgerald. I love, love, love absolute everything about her artistry.
Hobby(ies): Reading. Print-Art, where I design canvases with my pictures I take from nature and flowers.
Favorite quote: “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” Toni Morrison
People would be surprised to know… Although my mother tongue is German, I grew up bilingual (German, English). I sing in German, English, Kiswahili, Kikuyu, Twee, Zulu, Xhosa, Edo, Yoruba, Tigrinya, Somali, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Polish, Estonian, Finnish, Korean,
Chinese, Indonesian, Farsi and Arabic. I hope there will be many more occasions to sing in other languages, too!
