Viviane Houle is a vocalist, improviser, composer and psychotherapist based in Victoria, BC. She teaches Vocal Freedom and Expression Through Improvisation as part of Music Wellness programming at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. She also currently teaches the postsecondary level course Introduction to Performance Awareness within the Conservatory’s Department of Postsecondary Studies, in partnership with Camosun College.
Viviane has taught voice and improvisation since 2007 including workshops for VISI (Vancouver International Song Institute), the NOW Society, machinenoisy Dance Society, Groundswell Manitoba, iSaW Theatre Company, Laboratorio, Jennifer Mascall Dance Company, StoryTheatre, and VOXY. Her approach to the voice is informed by a variety of traditions and practices including opera, new music, improvised and creative music, continuum, qi gong, contemporary dance, expressive arts therapies, Deep Listening, and the Roy Hart/Richard Armstrong tradition of voice. Viviane’s approach to teaching fosters a connection between voice and body as well as the voice and the personality of each student, with the goal of helping vocalists find their own unique sound with genuine and free expression.
She has performed with the brightest figures in contemporary and improvised music, including Anthony Braxton (US), Louis Andriessen (NL), Didier Petit (FR), Sissel Vera Pettersen (NO), Paul Plimley, Clyde Reed, Francois Houle, James Meger, Dylan van der Schyff, Joshua Zubot, JP Carter, Peggy Lee and Torsten Müller. As a performer, she has been featured in internationally celebrated festivals such as FIMAV, the Vancouver International PUSH Festival and The Vancouver International Jazz Festival. She has also sung with the Vancouver Opera Chorus and was featured as a soloist with Vancouver Opera, the Vancouver Symphony, NOW Orchestra, Montreal’s Ensemble SuperMusique and the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra.
She has composed and performed for theatre (The Only Animal Theatre Company; Boca Del Lupo); dance (Noam Gagnon, Vision Impure, Judith Garay, Kinesis Dance, Mascall Dance; animation (Matthew Talbot-Kelly, Pierre Hebert), as well as for her own original projects. Her critically acclaimed album, Treize, a collection of improvised duets produced by Jesse Zubot, was released on Drip Audio in 2009. In 2023 she released a book of graphic scores and accompanying CD, the third iteration of her Unsung Songs project which she began in 2017.
As a counsellor Viviane has over 20 years of experience in service agencies and in private practice. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (Honours) degree from the University of Alberta and her Master of Social Work degree from the University of British Columbia with a clinical focus in Expressive Arts Therapies.