Michael H. voice, Music Theatre, Pop, Rock, Classical Chicago, IL

During high school (in Arlington, Virginia) I became very interested in choir and developed a very strong passion for singing. This passion grew quickly and I soon realized I wanted to pursue a career as a singer. I began taking voice lessons and by the end of high school was accepeted at James Madison University in Virginia in their Vocal Performance program. Wanting more out of my performing I later switched to Musical Theatre Performance and received my Bachelor of Music in 2002. From there I started to perform in and around the DC metro area working in plays, musicals, theme parks, cruise lines and as a church soloist. 

In 2005 I was introduced to NYU’s Steinhardt School and found an incredible voice teacher named Michael Ricciardone. After working with him for a short time, I realized that he was the teacher for me and Steinhardt was where I wanted to pursue my graduate degree. I was accepted to the school in March 2006 and given their highest talent scholarship.  I was also awarded an assistantship as an adjunct voice teacher.  I was given a full studio of students interested in Pop, Rock, Musical Theatre and Classical styles. Under the watchful eye of Professor Ricciardone and Dr. Brian Gill I took vocal pedagogy and learned much about teaching.  In May of 2008 I completed my degree earning a Master's of Music.

Recently, I have also been studying with Katie Agresta who has helped Jon Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper and now Sting in his latest tour with The Police to develop a healthy singing technique.  Katie has been showing me techniques that help immensely with Pop and Rock styles and I am thrilled to say that I now teach some of those same techniques.

I believe in helping each singer to find their natural voice.  I feel that in order to do this optimal airflow and resonance must first be achieved.  I have many different exercises and tools to increase airflow and resonance and I use the best combination of them for each singer.  Everyone is different so there is no single "recipe" to "create" a singer.  I also believe that simplifying things will make things much easier for both my students as well as myself.  I try to give my students one thing to concentrate on rather than many.  This makes each principle much easier to achieve and incorporate as second nature.

As a teacher I want to make sure that my students understand and are comfortable with what they are feeling and hearing.  While I am an easy going person I work very hard to help students find the right path to healthy vocal production.  I constantly ask my students how something feels, if they are comfortable with that and if they feel a difference when they make an adjustment.  It is very important for me to know if they FELT the difference more than heard it and know what process they used to create that feeling.  I say this for two reasons.  First off, if you know what process you used to get somewhere, then you can practice and perfect that process to get back to that place.  You want to practice that process not try to recreate a result.  Secondly, it is more important to feel a difference rather than hear it because there are times where we sing in rooms or halls that sound very different.  If we FEEL that things are normal than we know that we are singing well.  If we are basing our success on how things sound alone, then it can be detrimental to our performance and development as a singer.

The first half of each lesson will be dedicated to vocal exercises and the second half will dedicated to songs or other repertoire that the student is working on.   I will work within the styles that each student wants to work but will make recommendations of songs that I think might help the student progress.  These may be from a different style but like I said I will be working towards helping the singer sing the style they want to sing.

After just a few months my students learn how to ease tension in their bodies, jaws, and tongues, use airflow to create healthy sounds (and not muscles that are not designed to cause vocal sounds) as well as how to use all of this newfound technique to support their artistic endeavors.  I am also an actor and understand what it is to try and communicate while singing.  Songs are used to communicate all sorts of things and in order to do this we need healthy tecnhique.  I can help in blending the two.

I like to help people find their natural voice. In order to do this we need to achieve optimal air flow and resonance and that will help in discovering where the passagios (or breaks in one's voice) lie. Once these are found we can figure out voice type (Soprano/Mezzo, Tenor/Baritone) and I can help to strengthen the chest, mix and head registers so that you can sing many different styles of music.

Washington-Lee HS - Music - 1993-1997
James Madison University - Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance - 1997-2002
New York University - Steinhardt School - Master of Music in Vocal Performance - 2006-2008

voice, Music Theatre, Pop, Rock, Classical