Eliot Freeman

My experience is much more limited than my talent because I've lived a life rich in "doing" and experiencing so much - all the character of which is now in my voice (as it is in my mind). My direct experience began with singing in high school choruses and "special choral sub-groups", acting and as characters (some leads) in various musicals for high school drama productions, and much public speaking. As an adult, I have a love of (and a wonderful reputation for) story- and joke telling. I have been an announcer ("The Voice of the Upper Valley") for a local (New Hampshire) public access television station, and have narrated one 60-second commercial for a pet industry product that ran for some time on cable television. My most recent (on-going and continuing) role - the voice of innumerable characters of great variety (as well as a co-producer, editor, and programmer) - has been in the Scriveners (publishers) series of "efunnies! Great Jokes From the Internet" comedy CD's, of which there are now or shortly will be a total of 6, and from which my voice demonstration tracks are taken. Speaking well, proper diction, grammar, and syntax, the necessity of a wide vocabulary, and great exposure to language and languages (predominantly but not eclusively English, "American", French, and Latin) have been trained into me throughout my entire life by well-educated and (in these areas, demanding) parents. Real "training", per se, began in high school with voice and drama coaches who were perfectionists and insistent on the arts of properly "projecting" one's voice. Further informal training came over years from an Aunt who was a Professor of Voice at Boston Universtiy (Boston, MA) and the private voice coach of a number of now World-reknown male and female vocalists and opera singers, one of whom recently won the "Queen Elizabeth Prize" in England. The rest, quite frankly, has come naturally, in good part demanded by an exquisitely sensitive, inborn "musical" sense, and "ears" to match. I've led an enormously rich and varied personal and professional life. Born in NYC, raised in New England in the greater Boston area, well-travelled and constantly surrounded by people from all over the World through exposure via a family business, I am more knowledgeable than many about numerous cultures and histories. Professionally, my first degree (Harvard Universty, cum laude, 1979) was in - and I subsequently put in years of work as a researcher in the field of Social Psychology, and am therefor well-conversant and highly knowledgable in the social and humanistic sciences. I also worked as medical researcher (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, 1981-1983) at the forefront of the research in our field and am confident in my knowledge of and ability to speak "medical/scientific-ese". I was also trained as EMT in the early years of that profession's existence coming out of the Viet Nam war. I am a lawyer (Northeastern University School of Law, '83) of some 20 years, including arguments at the United States Supreme Court (though I no longer practice), and a professionaly-trained mediator/negotiator certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2002). In my entrepreneurial business life outside of lawyering, I have owned two publising companies of some repute, and have begun and run a number of corporations in fields of endeavor ranging from multi-million-dollar real estate development, transportation, and telecommunications... and most recently ave become a major "character voice" in a series of well-received comedy CD's (see the section above, "Experience") I have been a year-'round/12-month (including Winter/Arctic condition) mountain climber for many years, an avid touring bicylist, avid racquetball player, life-long "blue water" (meaning, "mid ocean") sailor, and both downhill and cross-country skier. I played football as a "starting team" player both offensively and defensively from my early years in grammar school through to an injury in my Junior year in high school. I am a dog (and general pet) lover/owner and a competent horseman (Western saddle only). I am an excellent cook, and collector of fine wines, and play seven musical instruments (and have played publicly on a number of occasions). I have been married and have raised a daughter... and divorced. ALL of these activities (and the list is far from complete) have gone into forming the character that comes out in my speaking and reading voice.