Marketta Sihvo
The developer & person who gave the tube its name

studied speech pathology and vocology at universities in Helsinki and Tampere (Ph.D. 1997). She spent more than twenty years working as a speech pathologist and lecturer in the field of voice therapy at the Phoniatrics Department of Tampere University Hospital, where she introduced instrumental voice measurements to the clinical routine. Her research aimed at preventing dysphonia, focusing on how working conditions affect voice production. Marketta is one of the authors of the book ‘Voice Ergonomics’ (available in Finnish and Swedish) and ‘The Handbook for Evaluation of Professional Speakers’ Working Conditions’. Her book ‘Healthy Voice – ABC for Voice Care’ is available in Finnish and Estonian. In 2017, she published her thoughts on LAX VOX® in her book ‘History of the LAX VOX® – tube exercise. ‘QUICK First-Aid and Vocal Self Care.’ With LAX VOX®, she developed ‘First Aid for Vocal Patients’ so that patients could treat themselves. Dr Marketta Sihvo has presented her work at numerous international voice congresses. She retired in 2009 but still enjoys travelling the world to give talks on LAX VOX®. Since 2015, she, together with llter Denizoglu and Stephanie A. Kruse, has been the owner of the LAX VOX® brand.

Ilter Denizoglu, MD. Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology
The physician & scientist

is the Director of the Clinical Vocology Department at the University of Izmir. The focus of his medical work is in the field of phonosurgery and voice therapy. He also works as a lecturer in ‘Pedagogical Vocology’ in three different departments of the university. He studied biophysics to understand the whole picture of the human voice. Ilter Denizoglu is a singer and he is interested in all fields of music (vocal pedagogy, history of music, acoustics).
He got to know LAX VOX® through Marketta Sihvo at a congress. He was sceptical of the method and began investigating it, turning his scepticism into a conviction. His results and explanations of the effect rounded off Marketta’s approach.
Since 2016, he, together with Marketta Sihvo and Stephanie A. Kruse, has been the owner of the LAX VOX® brand.

Stephanie A. Kruse
The German LAX VOX® Ambassador

has been living and working in Munich since 2013. She has been self-employed as a singer, voice coach, voice therapist, and lecturer, hosting and organising workshops and professional development courses throughout Germany since 2007. Together with Thomas Lascheit, she conceived the LaKru voice transition for the development of a female voice sound in trans* people. In 2016, the publishing company ‘ProLog Verlag’ published the first German-language textbook and accompanying collection of materials entitled ‘Stimmtherapie mit Mann-zu-Frau Transsexuellen’ (‘Voice Therapy with Male-to-Female Transgender People’), which Stephanie created together with her fellow authors Thomas Lascheit and Diana Houben. In May 2014, she successfully completed her complementary training as a ‘Certified Master Teacher’ in Estill Voice Training™. She got to know and love LAX VOX® in 2011. In the summer of 2013, she worked with Marketta Sihvo to produce a German handbook, which is a translation and summary of Marketta’s documents and thoughts. It includes exercise instructions and information on the background of LAX VOX®. Stephanie published the manual in 2013 as a free download on her website. A close collaboration developed between Stephanie, Marketta Sihvo, and Ilter Denizoglu during the LAX VOX® workshops in Prague in 2013 and in Munich in June 2014. The insights they gained from this collaboration are the basis of the LAX VOX® workshops that Stephanie holds throughout Germany and rest of the EU. Listen to Stephanie on the LAX VOX® podcast here. Since 2015, she, together with Marketta Sihvo and Ilter Denizoglu, has been the owner of the LAX VOX® brand.

www.stephaniekruse.de

Thomas Lascheit
The owner of the shop

lives and works in Berlin. In April 2011, he opened his practice for speech therapy in Berlin-Tempelhof. There, Thomas works primarily with transgender people as well as with people suffering from a voice disorder. He uses LAX VOX® successfully in his work. Together with Stephanie A. Kruse, he conceived the LaKru voice transition for the development of a female voice sound in trans* people. In 2016, the publishing company ‘ProLog Verlag’ published the first German-language textbook and accompanying collection of materials entitled ‘Stimmtherapie mit Mann-zu-Frau Transsexuellen’ (‘Voice Therapy with Male-to-Female Transgender People’), which Stephanie put together with her fellow authors Thomas Lascheit and Diana Houben. He also works as a voice coach, lecturer, and singer. He has been the owner of the shop for LAX VOX® products since February of 2015.

www.thomaslascheit.de