Biography
Amanda (Pogach) Panaccione has always been a strong ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Her background as a classically trained professional singer gives her a unique advantage for teaching voice feminization and masculinization techniques to transgender and gender nonconforming individuals.
Amanda is originally from Northwest Indiana. She began her career receiving her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance from Vanderbilt and Belmont Universities, respectively, in Nashville, TN. Since 2005, she has been singing leading roles with professional opera and musical theatre companies around the world. She also enjoys singing repertoire from various musical genres for concerts and events.
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Amanda began teaching voice (singing as well as healthy speaking techniques) and beginning piano in 2009 in Nashville, and relocated her studio to New Haven, CT in 2012. In 2013 she was inspired to develop a unique approach to voice feminization and masculinization and added Gender Expression Voice Training to her teaching specialties. In 2019 Amanda relocated her studio to Melbourne, FL, where she continues to teach Gender Expression Voice Training, singing, healthy speaking techniques, beginning piano, and musical skills locally at her studio, as well as virtually to students world-wide.
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For further information regarding lesson types other than Gender Expression Voice Training, please visit APMusicStudios.com.
Mission and Inspiration
Amanda's mission is to help transgender and gender nonconforming individuals discover and express their authentic voice. In 2013, Amanda was contacted by a transgender woman named Iris who expressed a desperate need for help with voice feminization. Iris shared that she feared for her safety walking down the street having a feminine appearance and a masculine-sounding voice. While Amanda's heart went out to her, she had no prior experience teaching voice feminization.
After doing extensive research, Amanda realized that every bit of information she discovered was founded on the same principles she had been using throughout her own career—performing professionally, as well as teaching singing and healthy speaking. The fundamentals were the same: breathing, pitch, resonance, diction, registration, articulation, volume, phrasing, vocal quality, etc... With this realization, Amanda agreed to teach her. As Iris developed the ability to express her authentic voice, Amanda gained invaluable insight into the vocal struggles of transitioning individuals. Soon after that, Amanda found several more individuals with similar goals. Through the unique program she had developed, they each made tremendous progress in expressing their authentic voice.
Amanda's passion lies in being able to use her training and skills to help improve the lives of her students, and she hopes to continue to extend her outreach here in Florida, as well as around the world with both in person and virtual lesson options.