Newly minted voice teacher

This is Peter, on the left, with Rachel. Both of them are on staff at the voice institute, and Peter has been on the apprenticeship journey with me for the last year. We've gotten to be pretty good buddies over the last 12 months. He asked me to shoot some photos of him today for some promotional materials.

Peter is a transgendered man and he will be is a fabulous voice teacher. He's building a clientele of other transgendered folks who have unique challenges when it comes to voice training. I've learned a lot from him this year about trans issues - he's very open and willing to share information. He has a fantastic tenor voice (he used to be a dramatic coloratura soprano) and a flair for musical theater. I adore him.

Rachel has been on staff at TVI since the beginning. She has a moderate hearing loss (severe in higher ranges), and yet she is taking voice lessons and doing wonderfully well. Something I learned last week: people with hearing loss cannot hear pitches accurately on electronic instruments, such as keyboards -- they have to hear the overtones that an acoustic instrument provides. Fascinating. Rachel is very artistic and is a stalwart activist. We figured out that we'd both been arrested about the same time protesting the war on Iraq.

So here's my apprenticeship progress report: I am done with classes. I have completed the massive written portion of my final assessment!!! and I have six more skills to be assessed. I should be completely done by next week! Celebration will ensue!

**Edited to correct info about Rachel's hearing loss.