New Hartford, CT Broadway Singing Lessons

I also offer hour lessons

30 minute voice/speech session - Typically work improving your voice through various exercises and strategies. I also offer hour lessons

*** Studio Equipment ***
I use my Macbook Pro to record lessons and distribute them to students via a free Dropbox account. IN PERSON LESSONS ONLY.

nding music theory are two important subjects that I offer. Along with that, a student can focus on any musical style from classical to jazz plus other important aspects like composing, reading and recording music.

I am willing to share my professional experience with any student who wants to become a player!

*** Studio Equipment ***
Steinway Grand Piano,
Electric Piano
Electric Bass
Synthesizers
French Horn
Trumpets

*** Travel Equipment ***
I bring music books to augment the student's library. However, students must provide their own instruments.

*** Specialties ***
Suzuki method for the 3 year old plus my father's method for ages 5 and older. After that, I teach according to the student's abilities and their goals.

le, with Hartford Opera Theater as Elise in Dawn Sonntag's Verlorene Heimat, Pythia in Nkeiru Okeye’s We’ve Got Our Eye on You, and as Miss Paige in Dan Shore’s An Embarrassing Position which was nominated for Best Featured Ensemble in a Musical through the 2015 Broadway World Connecticut Awards. She has also performed with Opera Theater of Connecticut, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Madison Lyric Stage, Greater Worcester Opera, Revolution Opera Alliance, the Simsbury Light Opera Company, and the Greater Meriden Concert Chorale.

Prior to moving to Connecticut, Rachel lived in St. Louis, Missouri, where she frequently performed with the St. Louis Symphony as a member of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. She has also performed with Winter Opera St. Louis, Union Avenue Opera, and the Southern Illinois Music Festival. In 2012, Ms. Abrams had the opportunity to be a sponsored young artist with Winter Opera St. Louis where she performed the role of Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos, covered Musetta in La Bohème, and performed in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical review: A Grand Night for Singing. Ms. Abrams has also performed with Opera Fort Collins, Loveland Opera Theater, Victorian Lyric Opera, and Opera Classica Europa in Bad Schwalbach, Germany as an apprentice artist. Additional operatic credits include Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Giannetta in L’Elisir d’Amore and Miss Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Theif.

A passionate performer of Jewish music, Ms. Abrams was featured as a soloist in Martin Bresnick’s puppet opera, Der Signál, with the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra during the 10th Annual Celebration of Jewish Arts and Culture at Charter Oak Cultural Center in October of 2014. As an active performer of art song, Ms. Abrams has collaborated with various musicians throughout the New England region to create diverse and accessible art song recitals. In April of 2015, Ms. Abrams and pianist Michael Korman presented a recital featuring the works of Schönberg, Ruth Schönthal, Previn, and Weill with the Maurice Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Hartford.

Since the winter of 2016, Rachel has been an active performer with Lollipop Opera Outreach. This touring opera company brings the joy of opera to thousands of school children throughout New England. This season, she will perform the roles of the Mother/Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Babe in The Three Pigs – A Pig Tale, and participate in the premiere of a new interactive “culinary” opera adventure: A Fairytale Kitchen.

In addition to being a passionate performer and collaborator, Rachel is a private music educator dedicated to the success of her students. Ms. A maintains a private studio of voice students out of her home in West Hartford, Connecticut. In addition to her private teaching studio, she is the alto section leader at St. James Episcopal Church in Farmington. She has also taught at Farmington Valley Academy Montessori in Avon, Arts Place in Cheshire and Summit Studios in Manchester.

As a voice teacher, Ms. A provides her students with a holistic, healthy, and age appropriate technique based on her studies of vocal pedagogy, years of lessons from master teachers, and her personal experiences as a performer. Through personalized vocal exercises and repertoire assignments, students will learn how to achieve a proper vocal onset, management of air pressure, increase vocal stamina, and maximize vocal freedom through balanced resonance. While Ms. Abrams teaches "classical" technique, her students apply her pedagogy to all styles of singing including, but certainly not limited to: musical theater, jazz, gospel, barber shop, and even rock!

Before opening her own private studio in Connecticut, Ms. Abrams lived in St. Louis, Missouri where she taught throughout the region. While in Missouri, she served as an Adjunct Voice Instructor/Lecture Professor at East Central College and a Private Voice and Music Instructor at St. John's School of the Arts.

In addition to her teaching experience in the Missouri area, Rachel was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Northern Colorado, where she was an assistant instructor for Music Survey and Music and World Cultures classes.

Ms. A holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Northern Colorado and a Bachelor of Music degree from San José State University. She lives in West Hartford with her husband Ben and their anti-social diva cat, Bonnie. She is currently accepting new students!

*** Specialties ***
I teach classical technique, specifically focusing on proper resonance and breath control. This method can be highly useful to broadway, jazz, popular or any other style of singing.

s,
Pop, Rock, R&B, Jazz, Classical, Broadway.

*** Lesson Details ***
Guitar: Learning to properly handle the guitar, left and right hand techniques. learn to tune the instrument. read notes, and lean all major, minor, and seven chords by the end of book 1

Piano: learning all 12 scales by heart, proper fingers technique for both hands, reading both left and right hand notation by end of book 1.

*** Studio Equipment ***
Tascam D8000 40 Ch. Digital mixer
Alesus quad Reverb,
Yamaha EX5
Korg Sound module
Digitech Vocalist II Harmony...
Pro Tools 10
Sonar XL XIII
D Drums,
7 Pianos
5 Guitars,
Bass,
2 Saxophones

*** Travel Equipment ***
Guitar, Keyboard, Saxophone, Mic, Laptop, Amplifier, Karaoke hard drive, and software.

*** Specialties ***
Advanced Vocal Coaching, for professionals,
Pop, R&B, JAZZ, Classical, Broadway.

Composition for pro artists, 256 mix tracks, 48 khz,
Top of the line recording gear.

Classical guitar, Music Theory and Composition for writers.

y Rock", Gilmore Girls", "Law and Order" and others. Her goal in working with her students is not only to teach healthy vocal technique, but in keeping with her theatre background, her strong belief that "Every song is a scene or monoglogue" leads her to make sure the student know what they are singing or speaking about, and can do so with a clarity of emotion and dramatic intent.
She has a BA in theatre/voice from the University of Kansas where she serves on the Advisory Board For the Department of Theatre and Film and has an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she is a guest lecturer. She is a member of AEA, SAG/AFTRA, AGMA and The Dramatists Guild.
"Mary is able to reach not only those students who are already excited about theater but inspire those who have no previous knowledge of it. To watch these young men and women become more and more accomplished is a marvelous thing. She inspired them all."...Mark St. Germain, Obie winning playwright.

*** Lesson Details ***
In a one hour lesson, we will spend twenty five minutes on vocal exercises designed to teach support and placement. Having performed leads on and Off Broadway, I know that without good technique you can't do eight shows a week, do back to back sets in a nightclub or cabaret or tour as a pop or rock singer. The second half of the lesson is spent on songs. As an acting as well as vocal coach, I focus on dramatics as well as musical interpretation. A singer must be connected to the words as well as the music. I hope to teach you to love singing as much as I do.

*** Studio Equipment ***
casio keyboard, speakers, desk, extensive library of scripts and sheet music, internet

*** Specialties ***
pop and musical theatre singing
college and theatre auditions/monologues and song performance

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to the art, discipline and joy of music making.
I went to Indiana University's Jacob School of Music and earned a Masters in Piano Performance, and Composition in the '90's. I sang all types of vocal music as well as prepared singers with vocal coaching and voice development techniques 20+ years.
I'm fun loving, patient, and optimistic-- these traits carry through in my teaching style,
One Size does NOT fit all--I approach the lesson plans for each student tailored to your learning style.
Over the past 23 years, my life experiences have encompassed other disciplines and compelled me to learn and acquire many other skills: my liberal arts as well as fine arts education lent itself to helping me work administrative jobs and even expanded into sales and public speaking. I have coached after school and SAT preparation to High School and College age students, helped with the preparation of legal and analytical documents, creative writing and editing assignments; and even tutored computer, social media and Microsoft Office & iWork Suite of applications to older adults.

I look forward to helping you reach your goals

ts. I welcome all ages including adult beginners. Bilingual lessons offered