Education, Biomedical Science and Biology
Degrees in Education and Biomedical Science, biologist and clinical researcher.
Carmen Moreno Muñoz
From Cumaná to Barcelona
Light lyric soprano, biomedical scientist, vocal technique teacher and choral conductor. Thirty years devoted to a single question: how does a voice that sings freely actually work?
“What should I do to become a good singing teacher?”Her question on her first day at the conservatoire. “I am still waiting for the answer”
Who she is
A scientist who listens to singing
Carmen Moreno was born in Cumaná, on the eastern coast of Venezuela. Before becoming a singing teacher she graduated in Education and in Biomedical Science, and trained as a biologist. She worked in clinical research and co-authored several scientific papers.
That laboratory mindset never left her. When she studied classical singing with her teachers, imitating a sound was not enough: she wanted to know which muscle produced it, which movement freed it, and why a high note could come out bright one day and tight the next.
Her method was born from that research. She began teaching it in 1995 to professionals, students and amateur performers. In Barcelona, since 1999, she has also applied it to choral conducting. In 2012 she published it in her book Mi técnica vocal paso a paso.
Training
Science, teaching and conservatoire
Before teaching singing, Carmen studied how the body works and how people learn. That double training is the foundation of her method.
Certificate of Pedagogical Aptitude
The official teaching qualification, completing her degree in Education.
Caracas, the Liceu and Badalona
Juan José Landaeta National Conservatory of Music, Conservatori del Liceu and Conservatori Professional de Música de Badalona.
Musicology
She is studying Musicology, with a focus on performance, at the International Valencian University.
Three vocations, one voice
Singing, research, teaching
On stage
Recitals of Handel, Mozart, Puccini, Dvořák and Villa-Lobos, traditional Catalan song and Latin American repertoire. She has sung at L’Auditori de Barcelona, the Monastery of Pedralbes, the Sant Pau Modernista Site and the crypt of the Sagrada Família.
In the laboratory
Her training in Biomedical Science and Biology lets her explain vocal technique with anatomical precision: the abdominal muscles, the pterygoid muscles of the jaw, the levator of the upper lip and the path of the sound to the vomer.
In the studio and the choir
She has taught vocal technique since 1995. She treats every chorister as a soloist, and her aim is for students to understand the movements so well that they end up independent of their singing teacher.
I am not the best soprano in the world; I am a soprano of the world who really enjoys her work.Carmen Moreno · 2008
Her routine, in her words
How she prepares a piece
In 2008 Carmen summed up on her blog how she studies each piece. It is the same order she suggests to her students:
- She vocalises every day, “as if I had a concert tomorrow”.
- She synchronises the three key points: jaw drop, sound placement and support.
- She chooses what she likes to sing and what suits her range.
- She phrases the text, taking care over pronunciation.
- She sight-sings the intervals and then adds the text, still without lyricism.
- Once the intervals flow, she marks the breaths.
- She works on the dynamics and adds the piano accompaniment.
- And then she enjoys it.
Career
Thirty years, note by note
A selection of milestones documented by Carmen herself. Filter by facet to follow her teaching, her concerts, her choirs or her work on juries.
- 1995Teaching
She begins teaching vocal technique
In-person lessons for professionals, students and amateur performers: the beginning of the method.
- 1999Choirs
Choral conductor
She begins her work as a choral conductor, which would lead her to direct Coral Esperit Cantaire and Coral Nova de Cornellà.
- 2003Stage
Musical direction for theatre
Lope de Aguirre, traidor by José Sanchis Sinisterra, directed by Karel Mena, and Animalmusic, a co-production of Barcelona’s Grec Festival and La Korbata.
- 2006Stage
María Moñitos
Musical direction of the show directed by Alejandra Egido at Sala Pati Llimona and La Farinera del Clot. Her musical direction credits also include Cançó d’amor i de guerra by Martínez Valls.
- 2007Stage
L’Auditori de Barcelona
She sings the “Cantilena” from Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, one of her favourite arias.
- 2008Jury
First invitation to an international jury
International Golden Nightingale Choir Festival in Carmarthen (Wales). She has taken part in choral festivals ever since.
- 2008Choirs
Tour of Asturias with Coral Nova
Invited by the Dafne Foundation, the choir performs at the auditorium of the Oviedo Conference Centre and at the cultural centre in Grado.
- 2009Stage
“Sol y Luna” recital
At Sala Mas in Barcelona: García Abril, the Song to the Moon from Dvořák’s Rusalka and Mozart’s Queen of the Night.
- 2010Jury · Choirs
Kraków and Galicia
Juror at the International Krakow Choir Festival and a tour of Galicia with Coral Nova de Cornellà.
- 2011Choirs · Jury
Coral Nova turns 25
A concert series featuring Orff’s Carmina Burana. The choir has sung in Italy, Poland, Austria, the Vatican and Andorra. That year Carmen sits on the jury in Kraków and at the 3rd International Youth Music Festival in Bratislava.
- 2012Publications
Mi técnica vocal paso a paso is published
Launched on Sant Jordi’s Day on Rambla de Catalunya, with her editor. The book includes a 3D DVD. That summer she returns to Kraków as a juror.
- 2013Teaching · Publications
Talks and first articles
First talk, “Singing and vocal technique, the soloist and the choir”, at the Aula d’Extensió Universitària. She publishes two articles in ArtsEduca magazine and sits on the jury of the IV Krakow Choir Festival.
- 2014Choirs · Jury
Cantoría Re-Quinto is born
She founds her female chamber group, which makes its debut on 30 November at Sant Pau del Camp. She is a juror at the X Varsovia Cantat and gives a talk at the Biblioteca Clarà.
- 2015Publications · Jury
International Bulletin and Cantonigròs
The IFCM’s International Choral Bulletin publishes her article on vocalising with the choir before singing. She sits on the jury of the Cantonigròs International Music Festival in Vic.
- 2016Stage · Jury
A festival of her own
She organises the 1st International Festival of Latin American Music Performers with Cantoría Re-Quinto, and returns to Warsaw as a juror.
- 2017Stage
Pedralbes and Sant Pau
An intimate recital at the Monastery of Pedralbes with harpist Mercè Guilera, a concert in the Modernista Hall of the Sant Pau site and a tribute to pianist Francesc Busquets.
- 2018Choirs · Jury
Oratorio de Noël
Cantoría Re-Quinto prepares Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël in the crypt of the Sagrada Família, with an open charity rehearsal. Juror at Varsovia Cantat.
- 2019Jury
Kraków, sacred music
An international festival of sacred choral music that Carmen remembers as “the best festival I have taken part in”.
- 2020Teaching
Lessons go online
Between 2020 and 2022 she teaches seven weekly online courses “with very good results”. That is where the idea of her online school was born.
- 2022Teaching
A teaching video series
She completes the seven-lesson series Mi técnica vocal paso a paso, a simple summary of her research work.
- 2023Choirs · Jury
Sagrada Família and Warsaw
Cantoría Re-Quinto sings in the Basilica and crypt of the Sagrada Família, with Hernando Franco’s Psalmus 6 (Mexico, 1611) as the great challenge. In November, juror at the 16th International Warsaw Choir Festival.
- 2024Choirs
Jardí del Silenci
An open-air concert of traditional music from Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Venezuela and Suriname, and Baroque works from Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala, sung in Nahuatl and Quechua.
- 2025Teaching
She announces her online school
Her website Mi técnica vocal paso a paso is relaunched to include an online singing school.
Gratitude
Her teachers
Carmen never talks about her method without naming those who trained her.
She is grateful for the teaching of Lucía Guitliz, Lina Brando, Humberto Diez and Eliseo Fernández. And she reserves her “deepest devotion and eternal gratitude” for Ángel Miseri and Sara Svat, for everything they taught her about vocal technique and for awakening her calling to teach it.
Teacher
Ángel Miseri
Teacher
Sara Svat
Teacher
Lucía Guitliz
Teacher
Lina Brando
Teacher
Humberto Diez
Teacher
Eliseo Fernández
Publications
Writing to share
Besides her book, Carmen has written about vocal technique and choral conducting in specialist journals.
2015 · IFCM
Vocalizing with the Choir before Singing
International Choral Bulletin, vol. XXXIV, no. 2, in the dossier on warming up and warming down. Published by the International Federation for Choral Music. Read the Spanish edition
2014 · ArtsEduca
How to choose a good international choral festival
ArtsEduca magazine, no. 9, pp. 30–37 (in Spanish).
2013 · ArtsEduca
Preparing my choir for a festival
ArtsEduca magazine, no. 4, pp. 90–93 (in Spanish). Read a summary
2013 · ArtsEduca
Singing and the good singing teacher
ArtsEduca magazine, no. 4, pp. 38–40 (in Spanish).
2012 · Book
Mi técnica vocal paso a paso
Her complete method, with a 3D DVD. Discover the book
Your first lesson
Your voice already knows how to sing. Let’s show it how.
Tell Carmen what you want to sing and what you find difficult. She will suggest a starting point and a schedule that suits you, online or in Barcelona.