What is Gender Affirming Voice?

A note from our music director:

What is gender-affirming voice work?

As a speech-language pathologist, I understand gender-affirming voice work as the practice of exploring, developing, and inhabiting a voice that feels more aligned with who we are and, most importantly, feels like us. It can include working with pitch, resonance, breath, articulation, vocal quality, speech patterns, and the physical sensations of making sound.

When I started working with clients in a clinical setting, I realized that this kind of voice modification felt much closer to singing training (or voice habilitation) than to traditional voice therapy (voice rehabilitation). We weren't necessarily trying to repair something that was broken. We were building something new. And I started wondering: what if we approached voice from a place of possibility and joy, rather than pathologizing the voice? What if we could use that exploration to move into new spaces with more confidence, freedom, and curiosity?

I am definitely not the first SLP to make this connection - but I might be one of only a few with a passion for music directing and a background in musical theater (cue jazz jands.)

As it turns out, I think every human body can benefit from exploring gender, how gender manifests in the voice, and what happens when we give ourselves permission to play with those possibilities. For singers - singing can become a reclamation of power, joy, and community.

Neon Transharmonic is a community of people committed to singing together in a safe and affirming space: moving air particles to create harmony, exploring what our voices can do, and supporting one another wherever we happen to be in our vocal journeys.

I think I can speak for the group when I say that we enjoy breaking binaries in life, and we're doing the same thing in choir. We don't use traditional labels for our voice parts. We don't limit ourselves to traditional choral repertoire. And we prioritize supporting one another as people, because when we feel confident, connected, and seen, we are better able to support one another musically.

For me, that's the heart of gender-affirming voice work: not simply changing a voice, but creating the freedom to discover what our voices can become - and experiencing the joy of building harmony among friends.

-Lilli Wosk, MS, CCC-SLP