(Graphic courtesy of Paulina Springs Books)
We use our voices every day—to communicate, connect, teach, lead, express ourselves and be heard. Yet most of us have never been taught how the voice actually works or why it can sometimes feel strong and effortless, strained and unreliable, or difficult to access at all.
Professional voice coach Deena Noroian, author of LOUD: The Voice That Cures Everything, will present some of these ideas during a free community event at Paulina Springs Books on Thursday, November 12.
Rather than a traditional author reading, What You Don’t Know About Your Voice: Why We Were Born to Sing, Speak, Make Noise & Be Heard will offer an accessible and often surprising introduction to a physical instrument people use every day yet profoundly misunderstand: the human voice.
“You use your voice every day, but no one ever taught you how it actually works,” Noroian says. “Some people experience vocal weakening or atrophy without understanding what is happening physically. Others feel frustrated by or disconnected from their voices and have no idea what they can do about it. The voice is rarely included in routine conversations about health and aging, even though it affects how we communicate and participate in the world. I see it every day in my work. So I wrote a whole book about it.”
During the hour, Noroian will touch on a few common assumptions about our voices, including the role of breathing in producing sound, why some people notice their voices becoming weaker as they age, and how physical habits and the tendency to hold back or quiet down can affect the way the voice feels and functions.
Noroian will use demonstrations and a simple, optional exercise to help audience members experience an aspect of their own voices. Time will also be reserved for questions.
The evening is designed as a starting point—to get audience members thinking differently about their own voices. Based on community interest, it may lead to longer, more focused programs in Sisters.
These physical questions are only one part of LOUD. The book widens the lens to examine how social expectations—including the rules of “civility” that teach us to quiet ourselves—shape the ways we use or suppress our voices, and how that suppression can affect confidence, self-expression, and physical and emotional well-being.
Noroian has spent more than 35 years using, studying and working with voices. Today, through her executive voice coaching company, VOICE UP, and her Central Oregon private coaching practice, Sing Bend, she helps people better understand their voices and use them with greater ease, confidence and trust.
“My goal is for people to leave feeling more empowered by the voice they were born with,” Noroian says. “The voice is not separate from the rest of the body, and it is not simply something that happens to us. When we understand how it works, we have far more influence over how it feels, how it functions and how fully we use it.”
Some Sisters audiences may recognize Noroian by her former professional name, Deena Kamm. She is the co-creator, writer and star of VOICELESS: A Musical, which premiered in Bend in 2025 and was co-produced by Sisters-based Silent Echo Theater Company. Leading up to the premiere, the production also brought a series of immersive storytelling events inspired by the show to the Sisters community.
EVENT DETAILS
What You Don’t Know About Your Voice: Why We Were Born to Sing, Speak, Make Noise & Be Heard
Thursday, November 12, 2026
6:30–7:30pm
Paulina Springs Books
Sisters, Oregon
Free and open to the public.
Copies of LOUD: The Voice That Cures Everything will be available through Paulina Springs Books. A book signing and conversation with Noroian will follow the one-hour program.