FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
The investment in your voice is $60 per lesson, one lesson per week. Pay as you go: cash, check Paypal, or Zelle only.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
I listen for healthy, efficient vocal function. I don't just go for a "nice sound". The goal is to optimize functionally the interface between vocal anatomy and the laws that govern the aerodynamics of vocal sound generation and the acoustics of sound propagation from the larynx out into the hall. I have unique exercises that are anatomically, aerodynamically, and acoustically informed to set up the voice. They give it practical, charming incentives to attract it toward its best possible function. By enjoying what already feels good, sounds great, and is much easier than any other way to get that kind of high quality result, it naturally starts to self-refine. The student doesn't need to know all the technical details of this process. To be genuinely effective in solving vocal problems for the student, though, the teacher must. The student fully understands the laws on a practical level only by noticing and remembering how it feels when it's working right. When it feels really good, sounds great, and it's relatively effortless (no physical strain) even on high notes, then the voice is working properly. When the teacher deeply understands the best vocal traditions and modern voice science, they illuminate and reinforce each other. The five steps of progress as I have formulated them are: Listen, Feel, Notice, Enjoy, Remember. When a student remembers how it feels when it's right, the student can do the same great things with his or her voice at will.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Well over two decades of intense experience as both a voice teacher and choir director. I have a master's degree in choral conducting from the University of Florida. My undergraduate major was violin with a minor in voice. I then studied classical voice for three years with Lav Vrbanic at the New England Conservatory in Boston. I already had excellent diction in my native English, as well as Italian, French, German, and Spanish. I speak Spanish with near-native fluency. Native speakers often mistake me for one. Before studying with Professor Vrbanic I was already an excellent sight reader, so he could put anything in front of me without ever having to teach me the words or the music. For those three years we focused exclusively on optimizing vocal function. I'm also a jazz, blues, and R&B lover, and have been an expert at scat ever since middle school.