Singer says CAH gave her a good voice

[Betsy]

Lisa-Lee Album Launch (http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14635278&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=lisa-lee-album-launch-name_page.html)

Lisa-Lee album launch Sep 13 2004




Daniel Davies, The Western Mail


A SOPRANO who did not discover she was a woman until she was 19 is preparing to release her debut album.

Because of a rare medical condition Lisa-Lee Dark, from Swansea, thought she was a boy. Despite being a pupil at an all-boys comprehensive school, she only discovered her true gender after she left and doctors diagnosed congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). But her condition and singing may be related.

The testosterone-boosting treatment she took in her teens could be the reason her voice is able to span eight octaves, she said. Now 27, Lisa-Lee will launch her debut album Breath of Life next month.

"It's what I would class as an easy listening, classical chillout album," she said.

"Two or three of the songs are really well know. The others are not as well known."

In females the excess of testosterone that people with CAH have can cause abnormal genital development before birth. CAH sufferers are often spotted through the low level of salt in the body, linked to a hormone called aldosterone.

"Nowadays most people are spotted, so if you've got a salt deficiency it's picked up early in life, but I didn't have that. But they don't screen for CAH so people still fall through the net. People are more aware of it, but even now you still come across doctors who are not familiar with it at all. It doesn't just affect female babies, it can happen the other way around.

"I went to see a specialist when I was about 15 who gave me the wrong diagnosis. He told me I had a rare hermaphrodite condition and said my body was trying to become female. So I took a lot of male hormones to try and make myself more male."

Lisa-Lee has now accepted the diagnosis of CAH and her true gender. Named Lee at birth, she changed her name in her twenties, choosing Lisa to prove she was not intimidated by bullies who taunted her with the name for being so feminine at school.

[Dana Gold]

I like the name of her new album, and her style of music....and she has a very nice voice. How ironic the Vitamin T actually helped her voice and upcoming career:

Click on box, left upper corner for brief samples from some of her songs:

http://www.cdvmusic.com/lisalee/

Dana

[RGMCjim]

So, this intersexed person has an 8 octave range and is about to come out with a CD and the reporter still describes CAH as something you suffer with?

I'm a singer too and my voice has unusual tembre. My intersex came from pre-natal progestin exposure - very much like CAH, and I've been on testosterone since early teens. Several people have speculated that my voice may have something to do with me being intersexed. Hmmm.... it did not, however give me an 8 oct. range.

Jim

[ptrinkl108]

Hi Jim,

I too was once a singer with a vast vocal range. When I was 13 years old, a music instructor came to our school to do voice testing, and found that I had the greatest vocal range of any of the students. I believe that CAH, or Testosterone treatments, might give a person a greater range with thicker vocal cords. I am no expert on this, but I think that thick vocal cords without an expansion of the airway, can contribute to a greater vocal range.
I am sure that I cannot hit a full 8 octaves, and such an achievement would be remarkable. That's from one end of the piano to the other. Very few musical instruments can attain that range. It's extraordinary that a human voice, which comes in such a small package, is able to attain that range. At one time in my life, I was regularly singing, and was in condition to sing a scorching falsetto as well as a fairly deep bass. Most people can add considerably to their range with voice training. Much of it is cultural. Tibetan Buddhist monks achieve remarkable low tones, because culturally low tones are associated with the "voice of the Buddha". Qwali singers in India achieve a remarkable falsetto, and some of them may get that timbre from being eunuchs.
It's hard to say want combination of hormones and life-experience leads to a distinctive timbre. I think that there is something to it, or there would not have been the persistent assertions over the years that historically some boys were castrated to preserve their unique high-pitched voices. I would be interested in finding out more about this subject from musicologists.

Peter

[RGMCjim]

Peter,
My range has increased from F to A in the upper range, making me a solid tenor. I have no falsetto. None. I had a falsetto when I was a kid but when my voice changed it disappeared entirely. Testosterone affected me the same way it does standard males. My voice changed. I did not retain the higher pitches and my tone color turned mature-male not mature-female. My voice is elfish - but a lot of tenors (esp. Irish) have elfish tone. I can't really attribute it to being intersexed. It seems like some intersexed people respond to male hormones, some to female, and some don't completely masculinize or feminize no matter what they're given. I guess it's just part of being intersexed.
We've done some enharmonic singing in chorus (Tibetian Monks do this). We thought it was abysmal until we heard the play back tapes. The sound develops up in the air somewhere.... out there... so you can't hear what's going on when you sing it. What the audience hears is really cool. We sang some very bizarre thing called "Past Life Melodies". It was an 11 part thing with all kinds of vocalizations.

Jim

[ptrinkl108]

Jim,

Just for the heck of it, I plugged in a midi keyboard and fired up my soft synth software to check the range of my voice. It seems that I still have a fairly good range, only missing the top octave of the piano and somewhat weak near the bottom. So my range is somewhere between six and seven octaves. When my voice changed as a teenager, I kept the upper range, but added a lower range. My everyday speaking voice is low. My singing voice was never very refined, but some people appreciated it. I am not sure that my voice timbre is directly related to being intersex, but then again there might be a connection. I have not sung with enough intersex people to see if there is a connection. (I know I will probably get alot of email about this last statement.)
I did have a linguistics professor at Berkeley, who commented on how unusual my speaking voice was when I was in my twenties. Another linguist, an old friend, once said that my voice was highly inflected, and that if anyone talked to me for five minutes, they would probably see me as gay. Both of these linguists are gay. But who knows, what they might have been picking up on is my generally depressed state as an intersex person. Is there such a thing as a gay voice, or a intersex voice, or a gay intersex voice? What is sensibility and what is hormones, or both?
It's good to hear that your chorus is doing interesting projects like enharmonic singing. That must be quite incredible, for the music to take shape on the sound stage beyond individual performers. I am glad that you were able to hear a recording of your work and hear what the audience was hearing.

Peter

[Sunshine1]

I have a wonderful voice that took me a long time to like even though others would compliment me on it. When I worked at a restaurant this customer told me that with a voice like that I would make a great announcer. I understand about the range because when I'm upset and frustrated my voice will get so high pitched that only dogs can pick up the frequency. (dog whistle, only dogs can hear it) but usually I have a full bodied happy voice that is strong with a little base to it. It really rocks and rolls and is fun plus being distinctive. I have a little doll face and I'm short so people are surprised that my voice is deeper at times. Another person told me that I sounded like Marge Shots owner of a baseball team from OHIO before she died and that I must smoke which I DON'T, He went on to say that for my size someone would think that I would have a real high voice all the time like Minnie Mouse. I went out with a guy that thought my voice was raspy and sexy but I've had staff at doctor's office ask me point blank why my voice dips and rolls. Considering this was the office staff insurance/appointment schedular, I was annoyed and looked her straight in the eye and told her "It's a hormone thing!" the bitch shut right up and I offended yet another normal person that assumed my voice SHOULD be a certain way based on the way I looked. Silly woman thought I should have a high perky voice but that only comes out occasionally and going to a doctors office isn't the place for it because I'm all business. Your genitals are sliced up to make them comfortable and they also criticize your voice? fuck them but I've also been told that I give good phone and when I worked at an office two of the women wanted me to do their answer machine message. So go figure.

I never had any testosterone and have been on cortisone my whole life to replace the cortisol that my adrenal gland lacks. The cortisone helps my adrenal gland fuction like regular people by supressing excessive androgens plus helping my body with physical illness. But still even with that my voice is neat and I delight that it is slightly deeper because it works for me. I also like the fact that all a woman needs is to lack cortisol at birth to have externally what is a man's pride and joy. Granted, it's different degrees and only 1 in 8 girl babies with CAH will be born to the extreme but still I feel it's ironically funny. I was having a lot of fun with a guy that wasn't that well endowed and I started smiling because it hit me that 1) Thank the Lord that the doctors didn't cut of his penis and try to BS him into being a girl 2) His little penis was the same size that I would of been if the doctors hadn't sliced it off.

Interesting in the article that she was taunted in school for being feminine and what a relief it must of been to get a correct diagnose of CAH.

Aimee