Olga Szwajgier (image courtesy Olga Szwajgier)The world-class soprano and creator of the unique voice compass widening method, has extended her voice range from four to six octaves and can sing to the limits of hearing. Mrs Szwajgier is a Distinguished Lecturer at the Ludwik Solski State School of Drama in Cracow (Poland), and founder of the “Laboratory of Voice Training”.(read more)Throughout her career Olga performed in prestigious venues around the world and interpreted operas by Ives, Stockhausen, Risset, Penderecki, Stachowski, Luciuk, Lutosławski] Since 1976, Mrs. Szwajgier has sang in all major festivals of contemporary music in Poland, Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Korea, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Mexico.A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Olga before her 3 day workshop in Stockholm and I asked her the following questions: do you really see colours while singing? How can you sing a colour? Does the sound have a real impact on different parts of the human body? Her answers were so fascinating that the next day I found myself taking part in the workshop led by Mrs Szwajgier.During the 3 days of hard vocal practice, mixed with a huge amount of laughter, I have learnt to use my voice, appreciated its power to open hidden channels of communication, and understood a lot more about the power of sound and colour.Olga has developed a very personal yet universal story of colour and sound that she uses with remarkable results for her own voice and for the benefit of her students.The premise is that colour is a visible vibration and sound is an audible vibration. So we can see and hear a hue and see and hear a sound. Anyone can learn how to do it.I was not entirely convinced so she decided to share a story about the monkeys from Madagascar. When a monkey uses for the first time a tool (for example a stone) to open a coconut it becomes part of a collective knowledge shared by all the other monkeys in the world. This means that we are connected to a universal source of knowledge accessible to one and all. She pointed out that this is an interesting subject with regard to plagiarism, as 2 or more people can get the same idea at the same time. When one person develops a method others automatically possess access to it. Everything in the universe is ready and waits to be used. It requires training of course and Olga spent uncountable hours researching a new way to use the voice in the most sensible way delivering sounds of the highest quality.She added: “For example, during an improvisation, at least for what I am concerned, I am opened to the sounds I am about to sing, and I feel the urge to collect all these sounds urgently before I start singing [laughter], and this is why I sing really fast sometimes [more laughter]”.Then she talked again about colour and sound. According to Olga we can sing a certain vowel/consonant and see a related colour. And she only teaches when she has experimented many times, again and again.At this point she started singing, right during lunch hour in one of Stockholm’s most popular vegetarian restaurants. She sang the vowel I by starting of from an unpleasant noise and developing it through to an indescribably beautiful sound that went straight to the heart, and while she was singing we could clearly experience the calming effect of that sound. Olga explained that the sound had a cleaning power for the surroundings. It affects the ones that generate it and the ones listening. She reassured me that I was going to experience the effects of that sound during the workshop held the following day. She continued to explain that she consciously opens the energy centre called Crown Chakra to connect to the Source, the sun, the moon or however we want to call it, and then she channels this violet hue (that is related to consonant I) through the spine towards the Hearth Charkas to then sing it with the focus on the hue. She believes that we are all spiritual beings and that is the base of her approach to life, work and behaviour towards humans and animals.This is the core meaning of her teaching; she sings a note focusing on the colour related to each consonant, hence Olga sings in colours. It is great fun and, most importantly, it unlocks unexpected voice resources even in such an unmusical person as I thought I was.She sang again, this time it was the vowel E connected to the throat chakra and the hues of Blue, it was to regenerate this energy centre related to communication.She produced a “faulty” noise, while she imagined a blue colour surrounding and entering her body, her voice changed dramatically becoming a soft heavenly sound as she kept on singing.Then she focused on other characteristics related to the consonantes.For example violet and the vowel I, regenerate the pituitary gland positioned at the base of the brain, and this has revitalising impact on all other endocrine glands of our bodies.The vowel U is connected to kidneys (strengthening them while singing), it helps to reach and sing from your underbelly and access energy emanating from there. The generated sound will then resonate in the whole body.Y is connected to the colour of Fuchsia, which is to be visualised while singing it.Singing the vowels on certain frequencies is cleansing and energising the body centres.Frequencies of tones at 440 hertz are used by world philharmonic orchestras to tune their instruments. This frequency is also present in all electrons in our atoms. If this tuning tone were played for longer period of time, in that very frequency, musicians would considerably energise themselves, audiences and the world.“You can definitely boost your energy by using your voice in that way” she said.She talked about Fabien Mamen, a musician who, in cooperation with a scientist, is performing experiments on cancer cells in laboratory settings. When they subjected cancer cells to certain tones and vibrations the researchers were able to witness a remarkable healing processes caused by the sounds.Olga added that Beethoven, while composing his music, had said that a “settima “ (half tone less then an octave) will change the world and that he had understood the power of sound on a grand scale.Tone C is called “green note” (as Schubert used to describe it) because it enhances the growth of vegetation during spring. This frequency is present in a bird’s song.The three days at the workshop ended with Olga coaching us to sing in a way that we never thought was possible after only a few hours of training.Olga will have the next workshop in Stockholm in April 2007 and, hopefully, it will be a magical experience for others as it was for me.Joanna Bodzek