MANTRA: Laura says teaching and performing feed off each other and that she became a better performer the more she taught.

— Laura Dziubaniuk, Teacher and Music Director, Doha Singers
By Umer Nangiana



She is equally good at both singing and making others sing. A laureate in multiple international music scholarships and competitions, she has been directing music at community choirs besides teaching it to children in different parts of the world for more than a decade.
She learnt it from some of the industry’s best and is passing it on to others. Laura Dziubaniuk, a Canadian expatriate, is one of the country’s most promising sopranos. Opera, Oratorio, Concert and Chamber Music performances have taken her through North America and Europe.
Some of these places include the prestigious Vancouver Russian Centre, Lancaster Opera House USA, Krakow Opera House, Krakow Stu Theatre and Concert Halls Poland, Concert Halls in Bratislava and Piestany Slovakia and Kiev Opera House and Concert Halls, Ukraine.
Now, based in Doha, she is teaching music as a primary teacher at the Qatar Academy Sidra besides directing music for the Doha Singers, a local community choir comprising more than hundred singers, both amateur and professionals.
Earlier this year, she conducted the Doha Singers for their concert themed on Broadway musicals. The concert was a deviation from their conventional performance style, and Laura made sure it was successfully executed, and welcomed.   
Coming from a musical family, Laura, a mother of a young son, is trained and experienced in giving voice training besides teaching piano, soprano and alto recorders, boomwhackers (a musical instrument in percussion family), bells, African drumming, Orff instruments.
She can also teach classroom music (ETM, Orff, Kodaly), children’s choirs, musical play workshops, instrumental or Band, theory, history, ear-training, sight-singing and music appreciation.
Just as she prepares to resume teaching after the summer break in Doha, the Canadian soprano tells Community how she became a singer after initially learning to be a pianist before eventually, finding her feet as a teacher.
“Teaching and performing, they both feed off each other. To be able to teach you have to verbalise what you do, and think about it. A lot of thought is involved in teaching and I find that challenge fascinating. I became a better performer the more I taught,” Laura says to explain why she made teaching a career.
At the age of 7, she started learning piano. By the time she was 15, she was done with piano. Now she wanted to sharpen her skills in singing. But what happened to piano?
“I used to practice one day a week. You have to just imagine my house. There are five children in the house. I am the middle child. The piano is right beside the TV. Everybody wants to watch TV so I am practicing as I am watching TV,” Laura laughs, as she recalls her piano lessons.
“I was lucky I had a natural aptitude that I got away with very little practicing. Until a certain level, your musicality is not enough. You need technique. So my teacher said, ‘Okay, Laura stop wasting my time and your parents’ money if you are not going to put in the time,” she recollects with another cackle.
To her parents’ horror, she announced quitting piano lessons, but to their eventual relief, that she was going for singing lessons instead. This set her up on the journey to become a great opera singer and artist.
It was her singing teacher, who introduced her to classics and later prepared her for auditions for a place in university. Alongside, she was taking piano lessons from another teacher. She was accepted at the university for two majors in singing and piano.
However, due to excessive practice, she injured her arm and lost her place in piano portion but went on to graduate in the other major.
Laura became a laureate in numerous international vocal scholarships and Canadian vocal music competitions which enabled her to further her music studies at the Kiev Conservatory in Kiev, Ukraine, the Sixth International Interpretation Courses in Piestany, Slovakia and the European Mozart Academy in Krakow, Poland.
Then, there was no looking back. Starting late 1989, she became member and associate artist in several Opera Companies in Ottawa, Canada. From 1991 to 97, she was a member of Opera Lyra Ottawa Associate Artist Program.
In 1995, she became a member of Opera Breva Ottawa where she performed the roles of Lola (Gallantry) and M’selle Warbelwell (The Impressario).
“I hated competing. I hate being compared to others. It is really hard to do. But it is the necessary evil in the business; you have to do competition. And it really takes a lot of guts to get up there and do it,” says Laura.
In 2000, after the birth of her son, she decided to take up teaching as profession. “My husband was working in Germany in an Opera and when his contract ended we decided to move back to Canada. I had jobs waiting for me as a teacher and I embraced them,” she goes on to add.
Since then she has taught at many institutions in different parts of the world besides giving private music lessons in her home music studio.
Besides being Music Director for All Saints’ Anglican Church (Westboro), Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral and the Cumberland Community Singers in Ottawa, Canada, she has also taught music in Dubai as the Middle School Music Teacher at the Dubai American Academy.
Laura believes it is important to have a decent ear to learn music, and most people have it. Her approach to teaching is to include and encourage everyone. She says those learn quickly who go with the flow and do not get in the way of their voice.
“I have seen a lot of adults who were traumatised by teachers in their youth, saying, ‘Oh! you cannot sing, you should not be in the choir’. They did not perhaps, match the pitch perfectly, but choir would have helped them develop their ear,” explains Laura.
Once in Doha, finding The Doha Singers was a fluke. A colleague told her about the community choir and asked if she could audition for it as a director.
“I had experience working with community choirs. They had other people auditioning as well and I was pleasantly surprised when it was offered to me,” says Laura.
“I embraced the opportunity with as much I could give it. And the beauty is that whatever I decided or presented to the committee they seemed to like the idea. For instance, I said why we cannot do themed concerts. That was not the traditional way and I said it does not have to be always this way,” suggested the director, referring to the group’s May-June performance this year.
She says she did not know what to expect with the Doha Singers, but things are just snowballing in the positive direction. It shows she is doing the right thing for the choir because it seems to have expanded, making it more popular and people happy.
Laura believes success depends 5 percent on talent and 95 percent on perseverance. “(If) you really want something, you have to work. You see a lot of people on stage who are not phenomenal but they had the perseverance, they never gave up, they kept knocking,” concludes the soprano and teacher.















Related Story