Brian has a Ph.D. in Speech from Southern Illinois University as well as both B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the Goodman Theatre and School of Drama in Chicago. He has had further training in voice development, speech improvement, and accent reduction in Hollywood with Dr. Morton Cooper (“Change Your Voice, Change Your Life”) and Dr. David Alan Stern of Dialect Accent Specialists as well as with Lorna Sikorski of LDS Associates and Dr. Paulette Dale (“English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers”).
Brian’s work on accent reduction was featured in the New York Times.
Brian has also been trained in the Arthur Lessac system of voice and speech for the actor (The Use and Training of the Human Voice), although he draws upon many methods in forming his original, systematic approach to all voice, speech, accent, and communication problems.
Prior to establishing The Speech Studio in 1984, Brian was the head of the Speech and Theatre program on the White Plains Campus of Pace University and, before that, a full-time associate professor of Speech and Theatre at the University of Connecticut and the University of Maine. Brian has also taught speech and accent reduction at Bergen Community College in New Jersey.
As a director and teacher Brian has coached hundreds of people in voice and speech, acting, public speaking, and the oral interpretation of literature. He has taught courses and workshops in voice and speech and has also performed his own programs of dramatic readings from world literature for a variety of audiences and on Public Radio.
Brian has acted on stage, radio and television since the age of eleven. He has directed many plays, including productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, The Crucible, The Diary of Ann Frank, The Fantasticks, Come Blow Your Horn, Spoon River Anthology, In White America, America Hurrah!, and Scenes from American Life. For twelve years Brian coached actors in voice and speech (in English) for the Puerto Rican Traveling Company, the oldest professional Latino theatre in New York City.
In addition to coaching actors, Brian has helped many business and professional people, including doctors, lawyers, and executives, speak better, reduce their accents, deliver presentations, and resolve many kinds of business communication problems. Brian studied management at NYU and served as Assistant to the President of Steele Industries in New Jersey, where he was in charge of re-organization, hiring, training, sales, collecting outstanding receivables, and developing new business.
Dr. Loxley has written “The Speaking and Listening Handbook,” as a part of the Scribner Literature Series for grades 7 through 12. He is a member of the Voice Foundation and the American Society for Training and Development. Currently, he is working on “Spoken Word Power: 1500 Words and How to Pronounce Them,” which is based on the Speech Studio’s Word of the Day.
Brian enjoys working with his clients very much. He is organized, disciplined, and efficient, yet, at the same time, understanding, sympathetic, and patient. He is very systematic in his approach to any problem but is also flexible and creative. If a method is not working, he readily will try another one, or invent one, to solve the individual’s particular problem.
Contact Brian today to learn how he can help resolve your speech and communications problems.
