About Wanda

The art song is a poem set to music, generally for voice and piano. I love delving for new jewels in the world of the art song, making the poem and the music my own, sharing the songs with my audiences, singing them over and over again – the same song, yet a different one every time, the way a painting can seem different each time you look at it in another light or in another mood. Thát is what drives me as a performing singer.

The voice is a living, vibrating, healing and playful gift that is given to us. Teaching others to use their voice, and above all to enjoy it, thát is what drives me as a teaching singer. When you sing and it doesn’t feel comfortable, when it feels like hard work, you can be sure it won’t sound as beautiful as it could. Learning to sing is learning to do less: relaxing the muscles that are not needed to produce the voice, so that you get a more beautiful sound. That feels better, sounds better and looks better.

Around the world in song

Wanda Peters graduated as a performing musician from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1993. She continued her vocal studies at the Utrecht Conservatory (Utrechts Conservatorium) with Meinard Kraak.

Already at the conservatory in San Francisco she developed a special interest in the language of songs. She began singing in Russian and Polish, then developed a method that enables singers to interpret songs in unfamiliar languages, and started collecting songs from all over the world. This led to her concert series of three song recitals, “Around the World in 80 Songs”. The repertoire of this concert cycle is still growing. She has performed songs from more than 60 countries in more than 40 languages.

In 2013 she and pianist Abigail Richards gave a song recital on the theme of “Mothers”, with songs in 15 different languages about mothers from all corners of the globe. In 2014 she gave recitals of Frisian songs with pianist Nynke Atsma, and on National Poetry Day (De Dag van de Poëzie) she and pianist Carolien Drewes gave a recital of Dutch-language songs.

Between 1988 and 2004 Wanda lived in Burundi, Argentina, the United States, Croatia, Uganda, Namibia and South Africa. She always immersed herself in the language and song repertoire of her host countries. In South Africa she gave a recital of Afrikaans songs. In Croatia she studied with voice teacher Dunja Vejzović. In Argentina she won a YMCA competition for young musical talent. She was also a member of the Grupo de Estudio Vocal there, with which she performed frequently, both as a soloist and in ensembles. In Burundi she was a soloist with the choir of the Centre Culturel Français. Since graduating she has given singing lessons and recitals, coached choir soloists, and given lectures and courses on voice teaching and on pronunciation in singing.

In 2004 Wanda returned to the Netherlands, where she founded Zangstudio Bilthoven. Since her move to Elst it has been called Zangstudio Elst.

Voice teacher in Elst

Today Wanda gives singing lessons, diction coaching and vocal workshops in her own voice studio on Franseweg in Elst (Utrecht), in the municipality of Rhenen. In 2014 she gave a workshop on the IPA and singing in foreign languages at the autumn symposium of the Dutch Association of Voice Teachers (Nederlandse Vereniging van Zangpedagogen).

See the singing lessons · Diction and choral coaching · Vocal workshops · Concerts