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Voice teaching and coaching is a professional service I have offered since 2012.

 

Who I work with: Adults, youth, beginners, people with a strong affinity for singing, parents who want to nurture their's child's musical gift, singers who are coming back to themselves after a long time without singing, teens who want to pursue music beyond high school, and people with simply a curiosity to know what's possible.

 

Find me at Ivy Creek United Methodist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia as the choir director. I lead a non-auditioned adult choir and host a bi-weekly community sing that blends choral music with improvisational circle singing. Both of these are open to all.

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Some background things: studied vocal performance and choral conducting at the University of Virginia. Locally I have performed as a soloist with The Oratorio Society of Virginia and the Albemarle Symphony (previously the Crozet Community Orchestra). Occasionally offering local recitals as well. I do my best to remain flexible, allowing music to take me into other spaces.

 

In such a spirit, music has lead me through adventures of song and business - moving abroad to teach music in the highlands of Guatemala, beginning and growing a beautiful non-auditioned middle school boys choir, opening a brick and mortar community voice studio dedicated to the art and craft of the human voice in the heart of Charlottesville, VA, and later turning the studio into a community health and wellness center. After sitting with some big questions of organizational management around voice and community (like it's simple but it's not), I found myself working with climate change scientists in an organization that is showing me the backend systems to a complex collaborative organization. It was truly divine unfolding that led me to the midwest and higher ed administration. ​

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My teaching has been impacted by the life's work of a friend and colleague: The Five Relations, a rearrangement and distillation of Alexander Technique and The Art of Breathing into five simple counterbalance relations in the body. This framework simplifies voice teaching and invites the whole body into the conversation in a precise and playful manner. She and I created an online curriculum for singers.

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I have a deep appreciation for the intersection of athletics and voice and both setting young people up for a healthy athletic/musical career and helping adults connect the dots between their whole lives and nurturing the sacred gift that is their voice. It's only the last 200 years that voice and dance have been separated so it's important to nurture these body and brain pathways.​

 

I'm in love with Guatemala and have lived there for a few years, always enjoying the sunshine, fruit, speaking the language, walking everywhere and perhaps most importantly - easy and natural connection to people. These things are medicine for the soul and voice and I'm always trying to find these elements where possible in daily living here stateside.

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I look forward to hearing your voice!