“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ― William Arthur Ward.
Genuine teaching requires care, compassion, and effort. I have had the great fortune of working at several varying institutions—simultaneously—and I found that though fatigue would attempt to creep in, my passion for giving my students tailored care never faltered and drove me to give them my very best. I am motivated by them as much as I hope to inspire their learning adventures. As an educator, I strive to help my students grow holistically as people by finding opportunities within my pedagogy to instill humility, gratitude, and personal strength.
Above all, I ardently believe in my role as a facilitator of growth and as a life-long learner, both of which occur when my goals are centered around the aspirations of the student and their success beyond my classroom or studio. My greatest joy is fulfilling my role in assisting discovery, whether it comes via a voice student learning how to trill or a general education student connecting with the music of Debussy for the first time. The greatest compliment I have ever received came from such a student who said in their evaluation, “I was afraid of coming into this class because I didn’t know anything about music, but you made it approachable, and I learned more about music than I ever thought I could.”
Because I believe that teaching music is more than teaching technique or teaching to a test, I believe in teaching the person (or people) in front of me. The best teachers I have had saw me for me. They told me when I did not meet their expectations because they knew I could do better, or they pushed me because I was not believing in myself enough, or they understood that a certain skill was going to take me longer to catch onto than others, etc. Whatever it was, those teachers are the ones I am most grateful to and represent the kind of teacher I strive to be.
I may be young, but I am hungry to thrive in this profession, one that I never thought I would like, let alone love (I began my career as a microbiology major). Working in master classes with greats like Richard Miller and Joyce DiDonato heightened my performing skills along with my teaching abilities. Their authentic kindness—and Joyce’s warm-up advice, such as “for mezzos, go low and slow, but sopranos need to be high and fly”—has perpetually influenced my approach, and resulting joy, in teaching. Beyond that, however, are the relationships that I developed more closely with my voice teachers, my pedagogy mentors, and my colleagues, who are always a source of inspiration for me. I have always tried to meet students on their own terms in order to develop a relationship of trust, which I find yields the most consistent, honest results. Patience and accountability are hallmarks of my pedagogy, but I am also fiercely dedicated to the happiness and success of my students and will challenge them to raise the bar. Of all of the various performances I have given, I was never so nervous as the first time my voice students gave a studio recital or when my newly formed choir gave their first public performance. When my students did well on their mid-term exam the first time I taught beginning theory, I couldn’t stop smiling. This is who I am as a teacher.
Because studio voice study encapsulates some differences from classroom teaching, I would note that I believe in the studio being a safe space for collaborative music-making and vocal experimentation. The more students feel comfortable in this laboratory approach, the greater the opportunity for technical and artistic advancement. I make a point to cover a broad spectrum of styles to develop the whole instrument technically and to create room for musical nuance (dramatic interpretation, poet/composer intentions, diction/language, rehearsal and performance processes, etc.) Repertoire-driven pedagogy is key, as is teaching students how to practice. I find it beneficial to provide students with the tools and responsibility to think critically about their work to enhance their progress and engagement with the craft.
A dearly departed science professor I worked with in my undergraduate days said (and truly lived) the following statement, with which I heartily concur:
"Setting the bar high is easy, helping the student clear the bar is what teaching is about. Awakening a passion in a young person and helping each student fulfill a newly formulated dream is the essence of teaching. There is no higher calling, no greater purpose in life." –Dr. Jed Burtt
Studio Teaching Principals:
1. Dramatic interpretation
2. Stage body movement
3. Language diction and inflection, along with poetic analysis
4. Intentions—the poet’s; the composer’s; the performer’s
5. Rehearsal preparation and the process towards performance
Technique Foundations:
1. A familiarity with the relaxation breath pressure curve and the use of both appoggio and flow breathing methods
2. Posture and alignment
3. Laryngeal stability
4. Clarity of phonation (relating to closed and open quotients of the mucosal wave)
5. Free vibrato
6. Velar closure
7. Vowel tracking (through the use of IPA)
8. Resonance balancing and voce completa
9. Agility, sostenuto, and legato styles (of the bel canto method)
10. Release of articulator tension (tongue, lips, jaw)