Anna-Maria Hefele is an overtone singer and voice artist. In 2018 she graduated as Master of Arts in Elemental Music and Dance Pedagogy with classical singing as her main sub- ject from the Carl Orff Institute at the Mozarteum Salzburg. 2014 she published her You- Tube video "polyphonic overtone singing" (below) that became viral and has resulted in more than 13 million views, followed by regular appearances of Anna-Maria and her unique art in various international television shows and radio broadcasts. "A voice as from another world", "the lady with the two voices“, "polyphonic vocalist does the impossible" - these and other headlines have spread across the world.
Overtone singing is a vocal technique where it seems like one person is singing two notes at the same time by filtering and amplifying the natural harmonics in the human voice. It can be used artistically as a musical instrument or can function as an educational tool for singers, choral conductors and voice teachers. The capability of being able to hear and control the harmonics in the voice refines the singer‘s audio perception regarding timbre and vowel colour and improves blending and intonation in any vocal ensemble.
Anna-Maria Hefele started with overtone singing in 2005 and has written compositions and arrangements for polyphonic solo voice since 2006. From 2005-2009 she was a maker of dis- play models and studied at Deutsches Museum München, where she graudated as the best of her year in Germany. Since 2010 Anna-Maria is consistently working as a soloist together with different ensembles, choirs and orchestras such as Kammerchor I Vocalisti, Superso- nus - The European Resonance Ensemble, Orchester der Kulturen and The Lady & The Cat. While working with large instrumental or vocal ensembles she usually collaborates with con- temporary composers and has already worked with artists such as Heiner Goebbels, Ugis Praulins, Michael Ostrzyga, Hans Schanderl, Birke Bertelsmeier, Tiziano Popoli and Wen Liu.
As a musician Anna-Maria is frequently integrated in various contemporary ballett, cir-cus and dance theatre productions with harp, nyckelharpa, voice and composition. As a music pedagogue she holds masterclasses, lectures and workshops in overtone singing technique, its acoustics and artistic application; also yodeling and vocal improvisation.
Overtone/Throat Singing
