Elizabeth Sabine

Sep 17

Elizabeth Sabine

DUBBED THE "AUNTIE MAME OF HEAVY METAL” by NBC News, Elizabeth Sabine is a Voice Strengthening Specialist. In recent years she has become known for her work in restoring and strengthening the voices of hard rock and heavy metal singers. She has also been able to apply her techniques to assist people in many other fields such as school teachers, trial lawyers, auctioneer, actors, preachers, etc.

Elizabeth Sabine was born in London in October 1923, and the family emigrated to Australia in 1924, settling in Sydney, New South Wales. Her father died in 1932, and in her teens Elizabeth helped her mother make exquisite flowers from feathers, which were then sold to the milliners (hat shops). She also won a scholarship for ballet, but left school at 14 years of age in order to work and help family finances. In time she took up singing and acting, working overtime to pay for her own tuition at the Conservatorium of Music. During World War II, Elizabeth was a member of a “concert party,” entertaining troops and doing charity work, and gaining a great deal of experience in stage craft. After the war, she took up modeling for a period of time then toured Australia and New Zealand with several musical shows, including “Brigadoon” and “Song of Norway.” She also toured and performed with Helen Reddy and her parents in the variety shows.

In 1950 Elizabeth married and had three sons, giving up her career at that time to raise a family. Unfortunately, eight years later, meningitis took the life of her youngest son who was two years old. Elizabeth’s husband never quite recovered from this loss and died two years later from a stroke, at the age of 49. They had been married ten years. Forced to now become the bread winner, Elizabeth returned to her singing profession and began performing in the local nightclubs. She also did several TV commercials, and later became a regular singer in the “In Melbourne Tonight Show.”

In time the Sitmar Shipping Line asked Elizabeth to become their Cruise Director for the special cruises they conducted during the year. Between singing engagements, she did this for a period of three years. And does she have some “Love Boat” tales to tell! In 1964 Elizabeth sold her house and took her two sons to England, where she toughened up her act by singing in the “working men clubs.” Eventually she gave this up in order to run a boarding house in the country and spend time with her sons.

In 1974 she had an offer to go to America to start a new life, and so after 51 years of age, with nothing more than two suitcases and a return plane ticket, she arrived in Los Angeles. The “new life” soon came in the form of a meeting with the operatic tenor-cum-physicist Robert Mazzarella. Elizabeth was intrigued with his revolutionary new concept of voice strengthening and ultimately ended up becoming his protégé. By the late 70’s, Elizabeth realized there was a great need for technique to rebuild the ravished voices of some of the rock singers who were coming to her for help. Through research she discovered there were many rock performers singing successfully with no apparent damage to their voices, and soon realized it was because hey were singing with the uninhibited, passionate cries of a child. Following this pattern, and by the streamlining certain exercises, Elizabeth was soon able to successfully strengthen voices for the vigorous screams and yells of hard rock and heavy metal music. She has now become known for her guarantee that she can increase the strength and emotional impact of every type of voice in a fraction of the time taken by conventional voice methods! But it’s not only rockers who come to her for help. Actors, actresses and even businessmen have called on Elizabeth to learn how to strengthen their voices and be more assertive.

In 1981, Lee Stratsberg of the Lee Stratsberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles, thought enough of her radical methods to engage Elizabeth to strengthen the voices of his acting and singing students, which she is still doing . She has also taught speech classes at the UCLA Extension Program in Los Angeles, and now gives seminars on “How To Strengthen Your Voice For Speaking and Singing.” at the Learning Tree Universities, the Learning Annex and several other institutions.