Ruth – Educator – Ruth Armishaw

Teach Me

2020 was a strange year for teachers everywhere, as ‘Lockdown’ thrust us all into the online world and shook up our ideas of teaching pedagogy. However, this has also opened up opportunities to teach people anywhere in the world.

As a member of NEWZATS (New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing), Ruth has found a network of likeminded singers who all seek to regularly up-skill and better understand the voice and how to help others reach their vocal potential.

Ruth Armishaw’s teaching experience spans 23 years, all ages and class sizes, from individuals to large groups, including choirs and musical theatre classes. Specialising in young voices, believing that if a young child has the passion for singing and the focus to work one-on-one, a teacher can harness that without pushing the voice to develop too early.

2022 is Ruth’s third year at Scots College, fifth year at Queen Margaret College, and ninth year at Onslow College. In these roles, Ruth has also helped advance many teenage voices, including preparing students for NCEA performance assessments.

Ruth was a vocal arts teacher at Rata Studios School of Music for six years 2016-2021, the vocal tutor at Musical Stars (a musical theatre school for children) for five years 2015-2019 and prepared the children for 5 musicals including Beauty and the Beast, Annie and The Lion King. She enjoyed leading the choirs and teaching music theory at Wellington Music Centre for 12 years. She was Co-Musical-Director for the Wellington region’s ArtSplash children’s festival for 4 years and has tutored many school choirs.

While teaching piano and singing for 5 years at Chilton Saint James’ School, Ruth taught students individually across all year-levels including primary-school children.

Ruth is working towards accreditation in the Estill Voice Training Programme and has completed the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses. This a method which focuses on safely exploring a full range of vocal expression, tone and style, through learning to finely control the various structural components of the voice. While giving Ruth a deeper knowledge and versatility of her own instrument, this has in turn helped her understand her students’ voices and ways of building and fostering them.