Teacher

Without breath there is no voice. The quality of breath determines everything that follows. Through 20 years of teaching, singing, yoga, physical training and experience, I have an approach to the voice that brings freedom, control, ease, awareness, and power.

Every student is beautifully unique individual. I teach head to toe awareness and guide the student through exercises that empower tangible ease of use of the entire instrument. A strong body and rooted breath are paramount to vocal freedom. Through my study and practice of Eurythmics, Pilates, Yoga, and other movement and body awareness techniques, I work with students to gain a sense of where and how their breath connection functions and feels. I encourage my students to test, think, sense, and then forget. Sing while you are singing. Singing is an incredibly powerful, visceral, beautiful and at times vulnerable act. Students learn much about themselves in the act of singing and I hold a sacred space for them where respect, humility and drive are fueling the fire.

Singing is all about the breath. Years of stage combat, dancing, and extremely physical staging while singing, have revealed mechanisms of the voice to me I could have never replicated or understood while standing still. I seek to empower my students to invest in their bodies and treat their entire being as a playable instrument. Physical awareness and ability to move is paramount to being a communicator. In the end, that is what I believe we want to do, it is why we sing. We have something more to communicate than speech can hold. We sing to convey something to an audience, to tell stories, to illuminate sounds and illicit emotional response in ourselves and others. To do this, the singer must be free from stagnation and have a second nature ease of use with all the tools at their disposal to aid them in this sacred quest.

I teach because I believe in the power of art, music, dance, and theatre and the epic importance of these art forms to aid in the positive growth of society. I believe the skills of a vocalist are life skills of immeasurable value to all people. Artists, and artistic thinkers are born everyday and I consider it an honor if I get to be a part of the educational trajectory of even just one. They need tech support and information as they find their passions, causes and avenues for sharing their talents and I hope to be a source of that support for those who seek it.