Singing with Danya K.

I am currently on the voice faculty at Brooklyn College and pursuing my Doctorate of Musical Arts at CUNY's Graduate Center in New York City. My performing career has been one of great variety--including opera, art song, musical theatre, pop, and choral singing.  Some highlights include singing the role of Max in Where the Wild Things are with New York City Opera in 2011 and performing alongside Broadway legend, Kelli O'Hara, with the Boston Pops in 2010.  In college, I sang in two a cappella groups (Shades of Blue and The Pennharmonics) and was awarded the prize for Outstanding Soloist in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in 2006.  I use my experience in all these different genres to help my students find the music that they are passionate about, while still employing healthy vocal techniques that are the basis of classical singing.   *** Lesson Details *** One of my favorite movies is the Christmas classic, Elf, starring Will Farrell.  At one point in the film, Buddy (Will Farrell’s character) encourages a friend to sing.  When she answers, “I don’t sing,” Buddy retorts: “It’s easy!  It’s just like talking… ‘cept louder and longer and you move your voice up and down.”  Boy, was he right!  “If you can walk you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing.”  And this is the approach I take with all my students, young and old, those just beginning and those more advanced.   My early training in musical theater led me to view the speaking voice as the basis of all singing. How else do you tackle the art of Broadway, which places spoken scenes and songs seamlessly adjacent to each other? But it doesn’t stop at musical theater. When I expanded my training to the world of opera and art song, I discovered that this same groundedness in my speaking voice helped me to connect with the words I was singing and to excel in the classical world.    Although technique is a very important part of my teaching, I view understanding and interpretation of the text as equally important (particularly with intermediate and advanced students).  That’s the beauty of singing, isn’t it?  What other musical instrument gets to meld the distinctly beautiful worlds of music and literature together?  I work with my students to choose pieces they like, pieces they understand, and pieces that speak to them.  That way they can speak to their future audiences with the warmth and joy of knowing that they are communicating real ideas in a most beautiful and intelligent way. *** Specialties *** classical voicebelting (musical theatre)20th/21st century songrussian diction