Sheila Barnes is an international singing teacher. Based between Suffolk, UK and Le Marche, Italy, she teaches singing at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) and online to her regular London and European professional students.

Sheila Barnes has a unique way of teaching based on her wide-ranging experience as professional soprano, lecturer, and researcher...

In Venice, 1528, Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) published a work called Il Cortegiano (The Courtier). It is a wide-ranging discussion about life at court and the ideals of courtly behaviour. One moral imperative – “never be tedious” – underlies his instructions. He also states that none of the courtier’s attainments in arms, letters, arts, sport, music or conversation should lack “sprezzatura”: the unforced ease of accomplishment and sense of effortless superiority which was to be looked on for centuries as the trademark of the perfect gentleman...