Audiences are moved and awakened by the vulnerability and strength Tavia embodies, and ignited to access their own deep well of emotion and truth. She speaks from a place of integrity, inspiration, and courageous authenticity.
Contact her here for speaking inquiries
Tavia’s inspirational teaching — whether focused on performance, writing, publishing, production, or the business of being an artist — is based in transformative experience.
Her work galvanizes students of all ages to convert fear into curiosity and to embrace healthy, clarifying discomfort. She invites each student to question: What kind of artist would you be if you weren’t afraid?
Available by invitation. Contact Tavia here for coaching and teaching inquiries.
"An absolute star. Her ability to imbue confidence and practical know-how is beyond impressive. She is warm and disarming, and yet teaches with power."
"She is utterly professional: prepared, prompt, equipped with answers for our questions and resources for further research. She is warm, open-minded and -hearted, and compassionate. She speaks and behaves in a way that sets the bar high for prioritizing self-care; after all, one is more professional and productive (if max productivity is a goal) when personal needs are being met. She clearly cares deeply about the work she's committing her time and energy to, and that passion is infectious."
"Tavia calmed my fears and helped me relax and lean into the emotion."
"It was such a blessing to work with her."
"She brings so much wisdom about reading, voice, and authenticity."
"She is real with us about the field we are getting ourselves into — bringing up concepts of feeding ourselves, making our own way, not being a 'starving artist.' She is curious and passionate and talented...an incredible role model, a tireless artist, entrepreneurial, and the epitome of 'professional development.'"
"Riveting."
"Uplifting."
"Moving."
"Brave and inspiring."
"A generous teacher."
"Lovely and quirky and brilliant."
"Fantastic."
"Caring and understanding and insightful."
"A consummate professional."
“'Until the Poem Falls from the Tree' was not only moving as a performance, but also clearly and constructively tied to concrete tools attendees could bring to their own writing process. I appreciate the risks Tavia took in preparing this session, the passion she showcased during performance, and the pedagogy she used to make sure we were not only astonished at her interpretation, but had a sense of how we could use it to inform or own work and vision."
"Stunning and startling and heart-opening"
"Fascinating embodiment"
"A sensitive and delicate performance"
"Remarkable"
"Astonishing"
The multi-billion dollar audiobook industry is booming. Fiction and non-fiction podcasts are ubiquitous and listenership is exponentially increasing. The technology needed to create quality recordings is widely, and affordably, available. If audio is everywhere, then the creation of aural content is an integral part of the business of publishing. But does every book need an audiobook edition? If everybody’s got a podcast, then should you start one, too? Is there a clear path to a return on investment in audio? And what’s the throughline between an audiobook performance and a podcast?
This class will offer students a detailed overview of the audiobook and the podcast industries; the basics of audio editing and production; the keys to evaluating excellence in audio performance; and an opportunity to produce a piece of original audio content. By the end of the module students will be prepared to make informed decisions about publishing and producing audio, including how to calculate production costs, building audio workflows, which aspects of production should be kept in-house and which outsourced, a sense of their own voice as an instrument in an aural presentation, and more.
“She is utterly professional: prepared, prompt, equipped with answers for our questions and resources for further research. She is warm, open-minded and -hearted, and compassionate. She speaks and behaves in a way that sets the bar high for prioritizing self-care; after all, one is more professional and productive (if max productivity is a goal) when personal needs are being met. She clearly cares deeply about the work she’s committing her time and energy to, and that passion is infectious.”
No matter what level of craftsmanship you have achieved as a public reader — from “stage fright” anxious to polished performer — your voice on the page and in community is an offering.
This session is appropriate not only for polished readers interested in strengthhening their public performance skills, but those writers who are terrified to read in public. The session focuses on both practical tools and the values that can support the most successful live readings.
This conversation is meditative, generative, and inspirational, and offers opportunities to practice the craft of reading aloud.
“Tavia calmed my fears and helped me relax and lean into the emotion.”
“It was such a blessing to work with her.”
“She brings so much wisdom about reading, voice, and authenticity.”
Producer Tavia Gilbert shares the story of the genesis of The Abels, a scripted fiction podcast in development with the BBC, as a case study for development of creative spark to fully-realized business plan. Let’s dig in. Your biggest dreams are welcome. Especially for those who have ever felt intimidated by the business of the business.
“She is real with us about the field we are getting ourselves into — bringing up concepts of feeding ourselves, making our own way, not being a ‘starving artist.’ She is curious and passionate and talented…an incredible role model, a tireless artist, entrepreneurial, and the epitome of ‘professional development.'”
The session is intended to assist publishers with the advanced planning and promotion techniques needed for the audio assets to be competitive in a growing marketplace.
How does a publisher determine in which titles to invest marketing dollars and how do they seek powerful professional reviews, and what bonus offerings attract listeners? What other ways are there to grow their audience?
Come with questions and leave ready to share your work and extend your reach through your network — both social networks and beyond. No, there’s no silver bullet, but there’s an organized, actionable plan to get you started. Let’s talk it through.
When an expert reader reads aloud or performs written work, their voice harnesses the power that expert writers pack into every textual tool at their disposal. Whether the written choice is punctuation, phrasing, point of view, tense, voice, another textual element, or a combination of elements, vocally exploring the texts of wonderfully idiosyncratic writing can help writers deepen their own work — revealing even greater opportunities for meaning and connection with the writer’s audience. In this session, Tavia will share short selections of works from expert writers, reading them aloud in order to highlight the links between textual analysis and live performance of written work, offering writers insight into how to better tell multi-layered, fully realized stories rich with multiple layers of meaning and subtext. Please bring a selection of your own writing, so that you may consider it with new eyes.
This process Q&A with Tavia will follow the live performance of a poem by Robert Vivian. The performance highlights the power of text analysis and voice work and incorporates Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints — a technique of creative exploration in the making of any kind of art.
“’Until the Poem Falls from the Tree’ was not only moving as a performance, but also clearly and constructively tied to concrete tools attendees could bring to their own writing process. I appreciate the risks Tavia took in preparing this session, the passion she showcased during performance, and the pedagogy she used to make sure we were not only astonished at her interpretation, but had a sense of how we could use it to inform or own work and vision.”
“Stunning and startling and heart-opening”
“Fascinating embodiment”
“A sensitive and delicate performance”
“Remarkable”
“Astonishing”