She has experienced the feelgood factor that children and adults alike derive from singing songs when she holds school workshops or gives one-to-one lessons at the converted music room at her Uppingham home.

And Caroline is obviously a good teacher because she gave singing lessons to X Factor winner and now chart-topping superstar, Leona Lewis, when she was a raw 12-year-old.

And she believes there is plenty of singing talent in Rutland, particularly at Uppingham Community College (UCC) where she works with the choir, which performed six impressive concerts in the week before Christmas.

"There are some fantastic singers at UCC and there is so much singing talent in the local schools," said Caroline (44).

"There are classical singers, musical theatre singers and even a very good rock singer. He is writing his own songs and he is very talented."

Caroline also enjoys visiting primary schools in the Uppingham area to hold singing workshops. She was upset when Rutland County Council stopped funding the initiative last year (2008) and was delighted to see the programme reinstated thanks to the efforts of Janet Anning, head teacher at Uppingham CofE School, her fellow heads and Bruce Moffat from UCC.

"We play musical games with the children, learn Italian musical terms, sing songs in different languages and we generally get everyone singing. I love it. It was terrible news when the council stopped funding the workshops and I am so pleased we can still do them," said Caroline, a single mum with two children, George (13) and 15-year-old Nina.

Caroline, who also teaches singing at Nottingham University, is an accomplished singer in her own right. A soprano, she is preparing to sing the part of Gretal in Opera Minima's production of Hansel and Gretal and also plans a series of concerts next year featuring coloratura arias.

She admits her love of talking is not a good thing for a singer. "I should protect my voice more than I do," said Caroline. "You just have to be sensible. The advice I give is for singers to drink plenty of water and avoid dairy products if they want to protect their singing voice."

She grew up in Stoke Dry, the oldest of five sisters. Caroline attended Uppingham Community College and learned to play the violin and piano. She honed her skills with the instruments while studying music at York University, Caroline's proficiency as a singer suddenly struck home while she was conducting a choir: "I realised that I could sing louder than any of the choir," she said.

A postgraduate music course in London gave her the opportunity to take singing lessons with an eminent teacher called Janice Chapman. Caroline cleaned for her to help pay for the £75-an-hour sessions.

Then came a massive change in her life – she decided to move to France. She played violin with the prestigious Sorbonne University Orchestra in Paris and developed her singing skills. Caroline learned a lot from someone she calls 'a mad professor', who is now head of Paris Opera School.

She recalled: "I didn't want to start my singing career in England and make a fool of myself because everyone over here knew me as a violinist.

"I thought I would go to Paris where no-one would know me. The first singing performance on my own was in Marseille, in the south of France, and it was very scary."

She specialised in singing Russian and east European songs and she gave around 30 recitals around France. Caroline performed in the opera La Boheme while she was living across the channel. Her voice had started off as a mezzo and went up higher and higher until she eventually became a coloratura soprano.

Since returning to live in Rutland, Caroline has really begun to indulge her passion for singing, both teaching and performing. "The secret is to not sing from the throat. You have to support the voice using your tummy. Good posture is also very important," she said.

That was some of the basic advice she passed on to Leona Lewis, who went on to become the first British woman to have a number one single in the USA for 20 years and has sold millions of records around the world.

Caroline taught her in the late 1990s when she was just a raw talent.

"Leona was living in Hackney and going to a theatre school when I taught her and her brother," she recalled. "I taught her for about eight months while I was teaching down in London and she had quite a strong voice even then. I was watching the X Factor but I didn't recognise her at first because she had changed a lot. I was really hoping she would win and I wasn't surprised that she did. She has done so well and doesn't seem to be that fazed by all the publicity."

Caroline also runs Rutland Choral Society. New members are always welcome and the next concert includes Vivaldi's Gloria.

She also has a dream of uniting all the primary schoolchildren she teaches in Rutland in one big concert at some stage in the future.

Meanwhile she is inundated by people wanting to learn how to sing in one-on-one lessons. Her pupils are both young and old and come from all kinds of backgrounds.

"Some work semi-professionally in the business, others sing in choirs or local operatic productions and I have one girl who sings in a band," added Caroline.

"And some of my students will never sing live to an audience but they often say they do it for therapy."

Anyone interested in getting involved in Caroline's workshops and lessons can contact her by email: carolinetrutz@yahoo.co.uk