Growing up, I was surrounded by music. My mom was an accomplished performer and voice teacher and enrolled my siblings and me in music classes from a very young age. I loved it. Every second of it. I was definitely that standard musical theatre girl in middle/high school.

 

Voice teachers in the area at the time were all classical. My mother had trained with a wonderful classical teacher and enrolled me in her studio in my early teens. But secretly, I loved to belt. I came of age at the time Wicked premiered on Broadway and I wanted nothing more than to sing those songs. Too scared to take such styles to my classical teacher, I taught myself how to belt. 

 

I got by with this self-built belt "technique" in high school and undergrad, but the truth of it was, my technique was unsustainable. Belting took so much work. I thought that was simply how it was supposed to feel. It's big and loud, so it must be effortful, right?

 

Wrong.

 

I did not get to experience the power of functional training until I had finished my undergraduate degree and went to certify in Somatic Voicework(TM) - The LoVetri Method with Shenandoah University in 2013. I felt transformed by the ease this science-based training brought me. And it was only a taste.  I knew I had to further my knowledge.

 

It would be another five years before I had the opportunity to fully study with Shenandoah University. The experience has truly changed my life. I could not have known how a teacher possessing the necessary patience and power of evidence-based voice training would foster such freedom, growth, and artistic expression. It is for this reason that I strive to share these tools with as many beautiful artists who come my way.