A legendary vocal coach and expert in the physiology of vocal sound projection, Judy Davis was famous for teaching singers how to breathe properly, enunciate and strengthen their vocal cords in order to project freely and control the sound.
She devised a series of vocal exercises that are used by singers around the world. Her students included Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mary Martin, Grace Slick, Eddie Money and many others.
Over the decades, scores of vocalists called on Ms. Davis to help repair their strained pipes and unlock their voices. In the early 1950s, Sinatra flew Ms. Davis to Las Vegas to help solve his vocal problems, and he asked for her help again in the 1970s. In the early 1960s, when Streisand was having vocal difficulties she turned to Ms. Davis, who coached her in the Oakland studio.
Ms. Davis, who was born in Red Bluff and raised in Oakland, studied music and dancing privately, and earned bachelor's and master's degree in music from the University of California at Berkeley. In the late 1930s, she worked in Hollywood as an assistant choreographer at Warner Brothers and taught actresses how to lip-synch to movie soundtracks.
In the 1940s she moved to Oakland and opened a dance studio. Although she was to become a renowned vocal coach, Ms. Davis never sang professionally herself. When she was 19, her vocal cords were damaged during a tonsillectomy, leaving her with a raspy voice. Eager to learn about her vocal cords, she studied Gray's Anatomy and delved deeply into the physiology of voice production. That led to the creation of her teaching method.
Judy Davis continued to teach in her Oakland studio until the age of 81. She died in 2001.
