Susan Heaton Wright – Company Director, NSN Productions Limited

Susan is an opera singer, who has performed as a soloist throughout UK, in France, Italy, Spain and USA, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, The Royal Albert Hall to name but a few venues. She has worked for eminent conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle and Mark Elder, performed for royalty and premiered works for a number of top composers including Howard Goodall and John Joubert. She has appeared on BBC1, Radio 3 and as the soprano soloist in a major TV advertisement campaign.

Susan is the Company Director of NSN Productions Limited, which provides high quality Live Musical Entertainment for Corporate, Private and Charity events. She gives over 60 musicians and entertainers regular work and the company has won awards for outstanding customer care. Musicians and entertainers range from Gospel Singers and jazz musicians to steel bands and string quartets. The company has recently been awarded accreditation with WEConnect, a government initiative where outstanding female owned businesses are connected with multi-national organisations, with the aim of becoming suppliers. NSN has just launched its own CD label and one of its artistes – the Romantic Tenor will be launching his first CD on the label next month.

NSN offers workshops for groups, focussing on developing excellent communication skills as well as team building exercises where participants are challenged to move outside their normal comfort zones through a variety of musical, creative, composing and performance tasks. Susan, through NSN also works alongside other trainers, providing a different angle within training and development days from a vocal, performance, creative and communications viewpoint.

Through NSN, Susan also trains individuals and teams to use their voices effectively in a range of business situations. Using her experience and expertise as a high quality performer and vocal expert, as a fully qualified teacher (QTS) and as a business trainer, she has devised a range of techniques and exercises within training programmes to coach her clients to successfully communicate. Her clients range from senior civil servants, individuals moving into senior management and senior executive level, to ambitious graduates wishing to create a lasting impression with senior management! Business situations include meeting skills, presentations and public speaking, preparing podcasts and video streams, networking and conversations on the telephone.

Susan is regularly invited to speak at business meetings, and recent organisations she has spoken at include The Chamber of Commerce, BCO Stoy Hayward, The Chartered Management Institute, Enterprising Women, the Centre of Women’s Enterprise and the Institute of Directors. She has also a contributor to the BBC Working Lunch programme and has appeared on BBC Three Counties Radio. Susan is a Women’s Enterprise Ambassador, supporting and mentoring women to start up and run businesses. She has also contributed articles for business websites and teachers’ magazines on effective vocal production. Susan is a finalist in this year’s Prowess Business Mentor award.

When Susan was an opera student, she had the enviable role of looking after top international artistes performing at Symphony Hall Birmingham. These stars included Jose Carreras, Jesse Norman, Nicolai Gedda, Elaine Paige, Monserrat Caballe and Andre Previn. She observed their preparations for performing and even received their top tips for preparation and performance: tips that she used herself and now uses with clients.

She is currently designing and recording a set of CDs to train people to use their voices more effectively and also writing an Ebook to support individuals’ development of these skills.

Susan is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and 8 year old son.