This week, Alexa is joined by Dr Luciano Simões to explore cross-training as a modern vocal pedagogy through a Latin American lens, unpacking how singers can develop flexibility, resilience, and stylistic authenticity across different genres. Drawing on the rich hybridity of Latin American music Luciano shares how cross-training equips singers to navigate diverse vocal demands with both technical freedom and cultural awareness. This conversation challenges the idea of fixed vocal identities, inviting teachers and singers alike to embrace versatility, curiosity, and the vibrant diversity of global vocal styles.
WHAT’S IN THIS PODCAST?
2:10 Who is Dr Luciano Simões?
6:42 Understanding Latin American music
21:13 What functional technique is included in cross-training?
27:57 What does a cross-training singing lesson look like?
37:41 Technical conflicts in cross-training
About the presenter HERE
RELEVANT MENTIONS & LINKS
Alexander Technique
Feldenkrais
Singing Teachers Talk – Ep.245 Technique Meets Artistry: Working with Contemporary Singers
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. Simões is a baritone, voice pedagogue, choral conductor and voice researcher with more than 30 years of experience teaching voice. He holds a doctorate of musical arts from Michigan State University (USA) in voice performance, two masters (MM, choral conducting and MA, musicology), from the same university, a BM in voice performance from São Paulo State University and a BSc in pharmacy from the University of São Paulo. He has completed post-doctoral researches at the University of Coimbra, investigating the Fado voice, and the São Paulo State University, where he investigated musical theater belting technique. He was a professor doctor with the Latin American Integration University for almost 10 years, where he created and developed its original cross-training voice program based on Latin-American vocal styles. Before that, he taught at the University of Campinas, Michigan State University and Alma College.
Currently he manages his independent voice studio in Hildesheim, Germany, is a special advisor for the Arte Maior Music School Voice Program and a lecturer with the Voice Pedagogy Program at Novo Horizonte College. His pedagogical work focuses on cross-training and voice building for the hybrid singer, and has been presented in some of the most important conferences of voice, such as EUROVOX 2026, ISME 2025, NATS International Region Symposium 2024, ICVT 2022 and 2017, PAVA 2022 and 2021, PEVoC 2024 and 2019, and EVTA Austria 2019, as well as masterclasses and lectures in universities such as the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (2025, 2023, 2019, 2018), the University of Coimbra (2020) and the University of Bremen (2017). In addition, he has published research at the VASTA Voice and Speech Review (2022) and the Journal of Voice (2021).
Notwithstanding, Dr. Silva is the official translator to Brazilian Portuguese of The Structure of Singing, the seminal work by the great Richard Miller, published in 2019. Dr. Silva has started to sing more than 40 years ago, performing rock and Brazilian jazz in bars and parties in his native city of São Paulo. Since then, he has performed genres as diverse as opera, art song, musical theater, and Native-Brazilian music. His main medium as a singer are art songs and jazz songs, including first performances of Villani-Côrtes songs, and songs from composers such as Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Ireland, Bernstein, Rorem, Bolcom, Sondheim, Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, Lorenzo Fernandez, Guarnieri, Henrique and many others, performing recitals since 1994. He also has extensive choral experience as conductor, teacher and singer, having conducted choirs in Brazil, Canada and USA, and sung with high-level groups such as the Elmer Iseler Singers, the São Paulo State Symphony Chorus, and Vocal Group Beijo.
Instagram: @lucianosimoes_dma
