What I Offer

Meet­ing each stu­dent where they are is how I start every les­son as a teacher, and my stu­dents tell me I do a good job at work­ing toward that goal.  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 wel­com­ing 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 musi­cians 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.

Every month, 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 a cus­tom-made, pass­word-pro­tect­ed Resource Vault of 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.

And because I know how easy it is to nod and say “got it” dur­ing a les­son… and then real­ize when you go to prac­tice the next day that maybe you did­n’t quite so much “got it”… I’m also hap­py to field ques­tions, offer sug­ges­tions, and clar­i­fy expec­ta­tions via email, text, or Mar­co Polo at any time between lessons.

Love to geek out?  Me too.

In addi­tion to reper­to­ry-spe­cif­ic resources, my stu­dents (and actu­al­ly all site vis­i­tors) have access to an ever-grow­ing Resource 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.

Check or change your lesson schedule, 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 with my online Sched­uler.