Meet VoiceExchange
VoiceExchange started between 2011 and 2014, when the five of us separately attended Bobby McFerrin’s week-long Circlesongs workshops. Those retreats focused on collective, spontaneous music-making, and the experience completely changed how we approached listening and singing.
After returning home, we connected through our shared obsession with this style of improvisation. Despite coming from vastly different musical backgrounds, we all believed that creating music collaboratively without a safety net was essential. To prove it, we started hosting monthly community gatherings—and we haven’t missed a single month in over twelve years.
Our debut album, Full Circle, is available for streaming and purchase on Bandcamp and major streaming platforms.
The Musicians
Beth Lyons
Beth’s background in improvisation began while growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, well before she formalised her training with the Washington Improv Theater and the musical improv troupe Door #3. For six years, she put those skills to unexpected use while caring for her mother, using song and humor to navigate daily physical therapy routines and gibberish conversations. That experience taught her the value of simply showing up with whatever emotions are in the room. Outside of music, she trains puppies and works on paper-mache projects.
Paris Kern
Paris is a folk singer, circlesinging facilitator, and a Feldenkrais practitioner with thirty years of experience. She treats body mechanics and vocal production as deeply interconnected elements: how you physically support yourself changes your tone, which in turn alters how you listen. She uses this physical awareness to help singers of all backgrounds—including classically trained musicians like the assistant principal trumpet player of the Baltimore Symphony—discover a more relaxed, uninhibited sound.
Amado Ohland
A lyric baritone and composer with a Master’s in Music Composition from Radford University, Amado has spent his career exploring unscripted, present-moment music-making. His background includes traditional jazz and blues performance, a two-year project writing daily improvised songs, and over a decade of community circlesinging. His composition work ranges from choral arrangements to chamber ensembles, and he fronts groups of all sizes, from intimate piano duos to full jazz orchestras. He operates on the principle that the ability to make music belongs to everyone.
Dina Torok
Dina’s career spans rock bands, Broadway theatre, and the Jewish vocal ensemble Shir Ba’Ir. Throughout these different genres, her voice and her focus on genuine collaboration have been the main constants. Having performed in so many different environments, she gravitates toward settings where the pressure to “perform” is stripped away, leaving room for singers to simply listen and react to one another.
Joy Truskowski
Joy is a singer, voice teacher, and song leader dedicated to helping people find confidence and comfort in their natural singing voices. Her group workshops and private lessons are designed to be accessible, quickly easing the anxiety of reluctant singers. She also uses a loop station to build live vocal soundscapes for ecstatic dance sessions and community events.