Your guide
More than photos, texts or diplomas, it is my voice that best represents who I am ...
Here is my background in a few words ...
My name is Laurence Lo Presti.
I was born on June 8, 1982 in Brussels, Belgium.
My mum, Belgian, and my dad, of Italian origins,
are both musicians as a hobby.
With my brother and sister we used to organize
" family concerts " at home, so many wonderful memories ...
When I was 6 years old, my parents enrolled me in
pre-solfège at the Brussels' Academy of Music
and the Da Capo Children's Choir .
When people asked me what I wanted do when I grew up
I always answered: "the professional singer" .
It has always been obvious for me ...
From my 11th birthday I started to take singing lessons at the academy of music with
my first teacher, Claudine Arnaud, who also introduced me to the basics of
breathing and sophrology .
I also took piano and theater lessons .
At 16, I reached very high notes, and my teacher arranged for my voice to be recorded
in an "endoscopic" version for clinical studies.
This is the time of my first concerts and recitals at the Academy of Music
and at school events; at the same time I was also singing and playing piano in church.
"Voices of Europe 2000"
was a very important event in my musical journey.
as I was one of the 10 young Belgians selected for an
international tour in 8 European countries.
Between 2000 and 2011, under the stage name of Lauryn Gaet,
I have more than 200 concerts to my credit, in 11 different countries.
I sing both as a soloist and as a second voices or in choirs
for other artists.
I have a vast repertoire of styles that evolve over the course of my
collaborations (opera, French, English and Italian songs, techno,
trance, symphonic metal, movie music, rap, jazz & piano bar).
Moreover, 5 Belgian, French and Swiss artists invited me to sing
on their albums.
I won 8 competition prizes and sung in different choirs.
I also did television and radio presenter.
A journey full of beautiful encounters and wonderful memories ...
In 2011 I graduated as a Nature-Guide (CNB - Belgium) and the theme of nature - which was already very important to me - will become even more important.
From that moment on, I orient my singing and my texts towards nature, its beauty and its preservation.
The film "Home" by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, released around this period, inspires me the vocals and the text of "Dying world". (Music Factor23 - Production Holophonix). A video clip is shot in London.
In 2012, I became songwriter-composer at the "Sabam"
with my project "Natagonya" and the album "Oceans die".
Some titles from the album:
From 2012 to 2017, I focused on types of arts.
I have participated in painting exhibitions (pastel artists from Belgium),
and obtained my degrees as MUAH (make-up artist and hairstylist) and Relooking at De schoonheidsshool Antwerp.
In 2017, I met Maggy from Myriad Voice
who motivated me to give singing and impro-theater lessons
in a Cultural Center, and in a Center for young people.
At the same time, I organized singing and theater lessons near my house.
I graduated in music therapy with Rachida Drissi and Yves Michaux,
which I completed with a specific training on rhythm
and support for disabled people.
Then I became a Reiki practitioner and a "positive coach".
I moved from being a singing and competition's coach to doing more
"open voice and articulation" for my students, and to helping people
with speech impairments or disabilities, sometimes caused
by burn-out or a disease that altered their voice.
With this experience, singing takes on a whole new dimension for me:
personal development and being centered;
self-confidence and fulfillment!
"I'm a luthier; I build and repair voices ..."
March 2020: first Covid quarantine in Belgium and sudden stop
of all my activities as a teacher, coach and therapist.
I continue to take care of myself through Reiki treatments;
I also practice Meditation and Qi Gong.
I focus on myself, I start singing during my self-healing
Reiki sessions and I feel extremely deep and self-healing vibrations.
This is how "ReikiVox" was born,like a ray of sunshine
in a world that has suddenly become dark ...
Then, in August 2021, I go through a terrible ordeal...
Already weakened by 2 close bereavements (including that of my dad, my musical mentor); putting more and more pressure on myself in a food job in the banking sector where I am less and less aligned, and having lost this essential balance of social contacts and my fulfillment in singing with my dear students, I have a "health crash".
After 3 sleepless nights, on the 4th night I have a muscular twitch in my chest - which I took for a heart attack - which paralyzes my left arm and freezes my jaw and my neck; And my body gives out completely... physically and mentally...
In 1 month I completely lose my voice and I couldn't speak for 3 months... I communicate in writing in a notebook...
I am in the most total medical vagrancy... I am prescribed antidepressants and sleeping pills, hoping that it will pass...
In the year and a half that followed, I explored all possible and imaginable therapies - medical, paramedical and spiritual...
Little by little I find my voice, but it remains extremely fragile, unstable, very quickly exhausted or even inflamed...
BUT it is said that life's worst trials sometimes bring us the greatest gifts... And it's true! (In a nuanced way sure - I haveI'd rather not go through that!)
I made some endless research on the voice, its physical and psychic mechanisms, to understand what happened to mine and how to retrieve it - maybe not "like before" but as best as possible...
I am certified in TMJ manual therapy (temporomandibular joint) and trigger points, I am trained in fasciatherapy, vagus nerve stimulation techniques, lymphatic drainage and the endocrine system. Thanks to this, I can help more and more people who come to me with vocal disorders or blockages; whether physical or mental!
I have developed some voice-related programs in different contexts: endometriosis, sleep disorders and burnout.
Since September 2022 I give conferences on these subjects and from June 2023 I will give voice therapy courses at the university.
An unexpected journey and that I find today so much beautiful and rich in knowledge, encounters and sharing!
I accept my voice as it is and as I write these lines, I still have to constantly manage my class time, studio time, and especially silence and recuperation times... So I chose to give it meaning, goals, a mission...
“I have no children; so here is my offering to the universe:
Radiate my heart and vibrate my voice for a better world..."
Lawrence