FAQs
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
Before I begin working with a new student, we meet to discuss the student's goals - whether it's to sing professionally or to sing just for the fun of it. We go through a few breathing exercises and some light scales to get a diagnostic sense of how best to focus our work together. If the student has recorded material, or wants to bring their instrument and sing a little, we do that as well. After our initial consultation, we tailor the workshop to suit the student's individual assets, challenges and goals.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have a degree in the performing arts and studied voice independently with top coaches in New York and LA for many years. My teachers remarked at how diligently I practiced, but, to me, it was natural. Aside from their advice and coaching, I knew intuitively that I would get out of it what I put into it. I tell that to my own students now. We can meet once a week and I can construct a solid program to move a student forward, but the miracles, large and small, are collaborative, and a student's own commitment to practice is an essential ingredient.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
I started singing in choir when I was a little girl and would run all the way to practice, I was so excited to be a part of it. In my teen years I got very shy about singing. I was encouraged to study acting and, after high school, enrolled full time at the Academy. While there, vocal coaching was a required part of the curriculum. My vocal coach gently drew me out, taught me basic technique, encouraged me to perform. It was there that I was first told that singing was something I should pursue professionally. I finished school, but moved into music, rather than acting, never looking back. It had been my secret dream and, for many years, I woke up every morning excited to start a day so filled with promise. As a young artist, I saw and loved that creative spark in others around me. It was natural to me to see and nurture that in them as well. I met two other young women and we formed a group together. We sang a Capella in the streets of New York, then formed a band and moved to the clubs. We learned and blossomed together through mutual creative explorative and support of each other. In the lessons that I teach, I guide gently, correct gently, ferret out and underscore a student's strengths and assets as well. My own creative process only blossomed in safe environments and I give that to my students. To me, that's essential.