Seth Riggs

In the middle of his concert at the famous Forum in Los Angeles, superstar Stevie Wonder stopped the show to acknowledge, in front of thousands of fans, a man who has had much to do with the success and longevity of his vocal career.  He wasn't referring to his manager or record producer.  He was referring to Seth Riggs - his voice teacher.

And, this isn't just an isolated case.  Grateful stars often give credit to this man whose unconventional methods allow them to use the main vehicle for their talent - their voice - to maximum degree of efficiency and effectiveness.

Whether he has to go on location to a movie set, a concert date, or a recording studio to help a Liza Minelli, a Bette Midler, or a Michael Jackson, Seth Riggs has helped many a star - a nervous producer - out of a jam.  Recently he gave Waylon Jennings a voice lesson by telephone.  The country singer was in Tahoe to open a show with his wife Jessie Colter and his voice was ailing.  It was Jennings' first contact with Riggs.  However, Riggs was able to get the singer's voice in shape quickly with just a few special exercises.

Seth Riggs' vocal technique and the methods he uses to teach that technique were forged and tempered by the fierce demands placed on the world's top performers, who must often perform several shows a night - night after night!  A great deal of money is always at stake, so his clients' voices must be able to function easily, without strain.  It is no wonder that whenever singers come to Los Angeles from other parts of the world, producers, directors and fellow performers send them to see this master vocal technician.

Seth began his career at the age of nine as a boy-soprano singing music of Bach and Handel at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.   His later training, however, reached into all areas of the performing arts.   He studied acting with Leed Strasberg, Sandy Meisner, Bobby Lewis, and Frank Silvera and dancing with Peter Gennaro, Matt Mattox, and Luigi.  He studied voice with John Charles Thomas, Robert Weede, Tito Schipa, and Keith Davis, and did repertoire coaching with Pierre Bernac, Martial Singher, Leo Taubman, Charles Wadsworth, John Brownlee, Hans Heintz, and Louis Graveure.  He joined  his first professional union, Actor's Equity, two years before completing his undergraduate degree.  After that, he became a member of all the performing unions:  AFTRA, SAG, AGVA, AGMA, as well as ACRA (the Association of Canadian Radio Artists).

He spent ten years in New York City.  For three years he performed on Broadway, and for six years he was a guest with the New York City Opera.   Yet, in the midst of pursuing his own singing career, he discovered that his greatest talent lay  in his ability to help others.  After taking a few lessons with him, singers were able to use their voices more effectively and consistently than they could using any conventional approach.  This encouraged him to take teaching more seriously.

Early in his new career, Seth's success with his students became so well-known that many singers left their teachers to study with him.  He tried to convince other teachers of the merits of his teaching method, but without success.   Nonconventional methods, no matter how well they worked, were frowned on by the teaching establishment.  He was kicked out of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and lost positions at the colleges where he taught.  Rejected by the establishment, Riggs headed west to Los Angeles where he has established the most versatile school of vocal technique of our time.

With $330 in his pocket, and in a rented truck carrying his motorcycle and music scores, he arrived in L.A.  His first show-business client was Ann-Margret (sent to him by Allan Carr), who had been "belting" too hard while singing and dancing in Las Vegas.  Next Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon hired him to prepare Shirley MacLaine's  voice for the movie "Sweet Charity."  He was also retained in New York by Richard Rogers, Alan Jay Lerner, Jules Styne, and David Merrick to teach their principal singers.  And, as his reputation for getting results grew, so did his list of star clientele.  Gregory Peck once asked Frank Sinatra to reccomend a good voice teacher for his son Anthony - Sinatra sent him to Seth Riggs.   He is considered the entertainment world's top voice teacher.

But, although Seth Riggs is best known for the stage, screen, recording, and television personalities he works with, his other students have won over half of a million dollars in prizes , grants, scholarships, and fellowships over the last ten years.  These awards include four National Metropolitan Opera Winners, Chicago's WGN, Rockefeller Foundation Grants, the Frank Sinatra Award, Young Musicians Foundation Award, Salzburg Mozart Festival Award, National Opera Award, and Fullbright and Rotary Scholarships to Europe.  Seth's opera pupils have successful careers singing in Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Saltzberg, Vienna, Staats opera, Convent Garden and other major opera houses throughout Europe.

In the summer of 1982, Mr. Riggs replaced two international voice technique teachers at the Banff Centre near Lake Louise in Canada, where he was in charge of vocal technique for thirty-three opera singers for the Canadian Government.  He was also asked to work with twenty young actors from Stratford.  His diversity of students - singers of pop, opera, and misical theatre, as well as actors and dancers - constantly reaffirms the universality and practicality of his technique.

He draws nearly 1000 new voice students per year without advertising.  Of these, 40 per cent are opera, and 60 per cent a mixture of musical theatre and pop studentss.  He teaches from his private studio, which converts to a 75-seat recital hall with a 20-foot stage.

He lectures and conducts Master Classes on vocal technique at colleges and universities throughout the country.  He also has assisted some of the country's foremost doctors who specialize in organic and funtional disorders of the voice in vocal therapy (the elimination of vocal nodules, polyps, and various conditions of fibrosis).

Consider a man who believes his best credits include being kicked out of a national singing association and several college music faculties for encouraging pop and musical theatre teaching on an equal footing with opera, and you have Seth Riggs.   In the pragmatic world of show business, where time is money, Seth Riggs is the manprofessionals turn to for results.