Why study with me?

What my students say

I could talk all day (believe me) about how much I love teach­ing, and how much time and effort I put in each week to cre­ate for my stu­dents the best pos­si­ble learn­ing envi­ron­ment.  But what that “best pos­si­ble learn­ing envi­ron­ment” looks like is dif­fer­ent for every student—so I’m absolute­ly thrilled when my stu­dents are will­ing to talk me up on-cam­era after their DMGS³ per­for­mances each year.  Take a look!

What I offer

Meet­ing each stu­dent where they are is how I start every les­son as a teacher.  But teach­ing is a relationship—so you have every right to know what I bring into the room before you decide you’re ready to make your most vul­ner­a­ble art.  Here are some of the things my stu­dents learn to count on from me:

Your humanity is my priority.

Music for me is far more than a pas­time.  It’s a way of explor­ing, nur­tur­ing, chal­leng­ing, and heal­ing the deep­est parts of the human soul.  I’ve invest­ed years (and earned an M.Div., among oth­er cre­den­tials) in acquir­ing and hon­ing skills to help me ensure that my stu­dio is a safe space for you to explore all of who you are and what you want to bring to your art, no mat­ter what is going on in the world outside—because I believe the best art you can make comes from what’s already inside of you.

I take your growth as a singer seriously.

The best voice teach­ers know that learn­ing the notes on the page is just the begin­ning.  With that in mind, I’ve invest­ed count­less hours in becom­ing a bet­ter teacher—studying every­thing from anato­my & phys­i­ol­o­gy to reper­to­ry & genre—on my way to a Mas­ter of Music degree in Vocal Ped­a­gogy (with a focus on Con­tem­po­rary Com­mer­cial Music) from Shenan­doah Con­ser­va­to­ry, one of the nation’s lead­ing insti­tu­tions for voice ped­a­gogy.

Private lessons are just the beginning.

Each month between Sep­tem­ber and May, my stu­dents have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in a Vocal Per­for­mance Mas­ter­class—a “courage con­ser­va­to­ry” where they can gath­er with oth­er stu­dents to hone their per­for­mance skills, learn­ing from me and from one anoth­er the tricks, tools, and tech­niques that make for pol­ished, pro­fes­sion­al per­for­mances.

Sev­er­al times each year, I part­ner with Empow­ered Music Edu­ca­tion to offer a Mati­nee Cabaret, where select stu­dents take their per­for­mance skills to the next lev­el by rehears­ing with and learn­ing from pro­fes­sion­al instru­men­tal­ists, while receiv­ing (lov­ing!) feed­back from patron audi­ence-par­tic­i­pants.

Final­ly, my stu­dents and I look for­ward every year to the annu­al Spring Stu­dio Show­case, in which we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to col­lab­o­rate with pro­fes­sion­al instru­men­tal­ists and back­ing vocal­ists for an excit­ing cel­e­bra­tion of music-mak­ing and com­mu­ni­ty!

You’ve got me in your pocket.

My stu­dents have 24/7 access to cus­tom-made, indi­vid­u­al­ized resources to help them learn and per­fect their music.  Use your phone, tablet, or com­put­er to pull up teach­ing tracks, rehearsal accom­pa­ni­ments, demon­stra­tions, pro­nun­ci­a­tion guides, and more—not to men­tion the notes I took dur­ing your last les­son, and my rec­om­men­da­tions for how best to use your time before our next meet­ing.

Love to geek out?  Me too.

In addi­tion to reper­to­ry-spe­cif­ic resources, my stu­dents have access to an ever-grow­ing library of online resources—some I’ve cre­at­ed, some from oth­er trust­ed voice edu­ca­tors across the web—curated and orga­nized by me to help you get the most out of your instru­ment, no mat­ter what music you’re work­ing on.

Schedule & billing, any time, anywhere.

Life hap­pens.  And when it does—even at 3 in the morning—you can always (at least 24 hours in advance) resched­ule an upcom­ing les­son with­out penal­ty.  And stu­dents have online access to their account details at all times, so we can be sure we’re all on the same page where time and mon­ey are con­cerned.