TESTIMONIALS
Discover what colleagues, past students, teachers,
and professionals in the performing arts are
saying about Rafael Lopez-Barrantes,
the Barrantes Voice System and Voice Made Visible.
Mirjana Jokovic
Director of Performance
California Institute of the Arts
Rafael has a distinct approach to teaching and working that sets him apart. He has a keen ability to understand the specific needs of each student, which allows him to adapt his instruction accordingly. Additionally, he has a perceptive insight into the insecurities of young talents and provides guidance to help them develop self-assurance. Rafael's approach is characterized by thoughtfulness and astuteness, which enables him to reveal the true potential and gifts of his pupils. His generosity of spirit has the power to cultivate and foster talent, inspiring growth and blossoming potential.
Irene Borger
Director of Herb Alpert Award
in the Arts
Voice Made Visible is a praise song to the incandescent mystery and power of the human voice. Grounded in multiple longtime practices, at once embodied and visionary, employing poetic imagination (“voice as nomad…voice as spelunker…voice as theater…”) and effective tools, master teacher Lopez-Barrantes invites us to consider the protean, primordial voice within.
Then, as with his students, he offers readers a path towards wilder, more expressive voices freed from cultural constraints and habits. Can a book be both succulent and useful? This one is.
Kalean Ung
Actor, Singer, Playwright
Certified BVS Teacher
Theatre Faculty, CalArts
BVS is a cornerstone of the training at CalArts and one that sets us apart from any other professional acting training program. I have been working with BVS since 2010 as a performer and I have been teaching it at the college level under Rafael Lopez-Barrantes’ guidance since 2015. In my own artistic practice, it has set me apart from other actors and singers in the world. This training links the physical, vocal, and breath with image, allowing the voice to be “visible” and a performer to be fully realized, something that I feel is extremely clear with the actors that graduate from our program.
I am so grateful to have the book Voice Made Visible as part of my toolbox as a certified teacher and that people around the world now have the ability to learn about this incredible voice practice!
Travis Preston
Dean of School of Theater
California Institute of the Arts
Rafael is a singular instructor in the world of voice training for the stage, and I am confident this book will have a profound impact in the world of actor training.
Marissa Chibás,
Filmmaker, Director of Duende CalArts, Writer of "Mythic Imagination and the Actor"
The Barrantes Voice System is a powerful method that liberates the performers voice through imaginative embodiment of natural elements. Rafael Lopez Barrantes is a master at unlocking and releasing the spirit in which the performer’s voice is carried. His work expands the voice to reaches that surprise and delight all who practice this singular method.
Janet Sternburg
Writer and Photographer
Forthcoming book
LOOKING AT MEXICO / MEXICO LOOKS BACK
Rafael Lopez Barrantes is a wonder. At CalArts where he has taught
so successfully, he instituted an annual program titled House of Voices.
Now with his new book he is inviting us all to enter the house he has
made with his special techniques and his knowledge of voices throughout
the world.
Giovanni Carroni
Director/Actor of Bocheteatro Company, Sardinia, Italy
The stimulus for concentration and energy were constant and escalating throughout. Rafael gives the actor no respite to stop his physical and mental fears and inhibitions; he works rigorously within a continuous rhythm that solicits bodily expressiveness in continuous interaction with the voice ( singing and vocal exploration) and imagination, to arrive at the theatrical text acted, freeing the actor from all mannerisms and academic clichés, and accompanying him to drop his masks, and open himself to others with generosity, to find his nakedness and fragility, fundamental elements for the search for an inner and therefore acting truth.
Gerri Houlihan
Professor Emerita, Florida State University
Faculty member, American Dance Festival
Artistic Director, Big Red Dance Project
As a faculty member of the American Dance Festival for 40 years now, I have seen our students learn and grow from many wonderful classes. Certainly, one of the most impactful of these was a class offered by Rafael Lopez-Barrantes called Voice and Gesture. Watching the class final presentations for a number of summers, I always came away profoundly moved and inspired. Finally, I decided that I needed to take the class myself! As an educator and a choreographer, I discovered tools and concepts that continue to resonate for me today. What a joy to watch a room full of vocally shy but physically talented movers find their voice....myself included.
Jodie Nimerichter
Director of the
American Dance Festival
Rafael’s Voice & Gesture classes at the American Dance Festival (ADF) spanned many years and transformed the voices of hundreds of students, faculty, and administrators. He provided the tools and space for students to take control and command of their voices. It was awe-inspiring to witness their progression from the first to final class. In their project showings, the students captivated audiences with the extraordinary range of octaves and emotions they performed and left ADF empowered by their newly discovered voices!
Steven D Lavine
President Emeritus
California Institute of the Arts
Drawing on his own life-long experience of the power of extended vocal range and his deep dive into a variety of versions of extended vocal technique, especially Japanese, Rafael Lopez-Barrantes provides
a persuasive and accessible introduction for those new to the possibility, and wise and inspiring direction for those already involved.
Trebor Healey
Professor of
Creative Writing, UCLA
Lopez-Barrantes possesses that rare and yet essential gift of the true artist - soul. His work is inspired, always fresh, always evolving, unique and worthy of study. His example has made me a better writer and teacher and this book is a crowning achievement of his multidisciplinary approach and an important contribution to voice, song, performance, theater, writing – indeed, all of the arts.
Zola Dee
Playwright and Performer
Rafael Lopez-Barrantes has been one of the greatest catalysts for my artistic development and was an exceptional mentor. His methods of teaching and pedagogy force you to think outside of the confines of the typical methodologies for voice training and allows you to explore the true textures, essences and layers of the human voice.
Tatiana Williams
AEA/SAG Actress
Rafael Lopez -Barrantes has a passion and vulnerability in his unique teaching style. His deep commitment to helping others find their authentic voice is what makes him singular. His breath of knowledge and international experience in the field continue to inspire lives worldwide. A “Voice Made Visible” is a must read for any artist or person who is ready to tap into their “multi octave range” and see their full potential!
Rory Leech
Actor and CalArts Alum
Rafael Lopez-Barrantes is one of the greatest mentors a young artist could have - rigorous, curious, empathetic and challenging. The Barrantes Voice System, more than purely a tool for expanding the craft of an actor, helped me dig deep into bodily and vocal traumas that were limiting my instrument, and with patience and consistency, allowed me to expand beyond my limitations and work from my soul. It is deeply human work, both natural and supernatural in equal measure.
Kestrel Farin Leah
Performer & Theatre Artist
If the voice is nomadic, then the vast terrain mine has traversed over the past decade of my performance and research would not have been conceivable without the foundation of Rafael's work. At once accessible and demystifying, his approach yet holds space for the mystical—he’s this gorgeous blend of childlike curiosity, deference to nature, and creative fervor.
Dr. Linda Belans
Author, Dancer, Poet
Cannot wait to dig into our innovative and generous friend’s book that integrates a lifetime of study, teaching, mentoring, performing, traveling, family, an open heart, mind – and vocal folds – and a practiced belief that "it will happen…
Rafael's book is a brilliant interplay of technique, anatomy, and philosophy within the context of how we live our lives.
Laurent Berger
Theatre Director and the Dean of the Theatre and Live Arts Department at Montpellier University 3
Voice Made Visible is without doubt an essential work in acting theory in the 21st century. Rafael Lopez-Barrantes is a practitioner of the theatrical voice and an outstanding teacher. In Voice Made Visible he shows to be a great theorist, synthesizing his incomparable experience in the field of the actor's voice in these pages where the strength of the theory is permanently anchored in the concreteness of practice, giving it a scope that transcends borders and cultures. It reflects not only his unrivaled experience in the field but also his passion for transmission, which will captivate students as well as professional artists.
Zero Pilnik
Actor and Screenwriter
Rafael's teachings have been a fundamental pillar of my becoming an artist. As a teacher and mentor, Rafael challenged my – at times naïve and self-important – early 20s vision of myself as a performer by opening my eyes, my lungs, and my entire self to all possibilities. Through the Barantes Voice System, I learned that my five-foot body had the potential to contain monsters, Italian Arlecchinos, high-class dames, and even intergalactic stardust. It is a special experience I often like to revisit in my acting work and that I would love to share with any performer I know, therefore I'm very excited to have a glimpse of this process in the form of a book.
Grace Leneghan
Actress and Editor of
Voice Made Visible
Rafael Lopez-Barrantes is a generous mentor and brilliant vocal artist. His legacy rings true in his book Voice Made Visible, where the artist is invited in to explore their voice and reach new heights. The Barrantes Voice System challenges, nourishes, and inspires the artist with confidence and a strong foundation.
Vidushi Chadha
Actress and CalArts Alum
The Barrantes Voice System is a revolutionary union of body, voice and imagination. It helped me to deeply access the rich inner world within and translate it in my performance.
Joe Zhang
Voice Faculty at CalArts
The Barrantes System is not just a voice training system. It’s a philosophy that helps you find your unique presence as an actor and overcome your ego.