She has travelled extensively for her music career and now Colleen Peterson will be providing the community with free singing lessons at the CBD piano.
The vocal coach and singer said she wanted to utilise the piano more after debuting her talent in the CBD earlier this year.
“People are generally shy and need a bit of encouragement so I thought why don't I do some free singing lessons at the piano?” she said.
The piano was introduced to the CBD as part of a #lovebundy and Bundaberg Regional Galleries public art installation and has been a popular feature of the centre pavilion.
Colleen said she plans to start with one lesson at the piano and, if the public showed enough interest, would continue providing the free service over a set number of weeks.
“It will be very casual and fun,” she said.
“Usually I start with some voice techniques and then we will move on to a song or two.”
Singing career
Colleen has a long and diverse career in the music industry, having just come back to Bundaberg after spending 16 years in Asia.
“My younger brother was travelling around the world and asked me to come over to Asia to teach for a year,” she said.
“I never left! I got married, had two kids and over time I taught English.
“I have always enjoyed singing, I was in bands in university etc.
“I was discovered, I guess, in a night club by a guy who ran an entertainment company. So I worked with them for a couple of years before progressing my career.”
Colleen said she then went on to train with Hao Ting, a tenor who performs around the world, and other notable names in the industry while acquiring her vocal certificate.
“I teach people how to sing,” she said,
“I believe everyone has one thing they are passionate about and this is my thing.”
Colleen said her favourite songs to sing were of the musical theatre variety because of the emotion they emitted.
“It's a genre that belongs with acting and I just love the idea of telling a story,” she said.
“It's real drama.”
Colleen said she was excited to start her free singing lessons at the community piano and urged everyone to get involved.
“Every person has the ability to sing because everyone can open her mouth,” she said.
“It's just about improving on your talent.”
Lesson details
The first free lesson will be held on Sunday, 2 June at 11 am.
The song ‘Memory' from the musical Cats will be featured in the lesson and all participant are asked to bring a recording device (phone or other) for learning purposes.
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