Stage Performance with Jessica W.

Jessica is a fun, patient, passionate teacher whose mission is to pass on the wonderful knowledge and love for music that was instilled in her onto a new group of eager young minds. Jessica Winn has been studying and performing classical music for over 20 years. Her relationship with music started at age 9 with the Contra Costa Children's Choir and she has maintained her classical vocal studies ever since. Along with her vocal studies, Jessica studied classical piano privately with Keith Snell for 7 years, competing and achieving high marks in regional competitions. She went on to receive her Bachelor's degree in Music at Mannes College of Music in New York City and finished her education at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she received her Masters, receiving training in vocal pedagogy and physiology, as well as vocal performance. Jessica graduated from SFCM in 2009 and immediately began perusing both a teaching and performing career. Jessica has maintained an active voice and piano studio since 2011, leading her students to high musical achievements in both fields, and is a Master Vocal coach at Acalanes High School. Other teaching experience includes Musical Theater Camp Director for the Heads Up Program at Head Royce in Oakland and Village Center for the Arts, giving private lessons, leading In-School Outreach Programs throughout the Bay Area, and heading their Musical Theater program. Jessica is an active performer in the Bay Area as well, performing with Opera San Jose, Phenix Opera, Berkeley Chamber Opera, Verismo Opera, West Edge Opera and Marin Baroque. Jessica has also been employed as a performer on the east coast, making her professional debut with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2011 and with The Manhattan Opera Studio. *** Lesson Details *** In my lessons, I feel it is important for my students to have fun and to and enjoy the learning process. However I believe in order for both student and teacher to get the most out of the lesson, practicing at home is extremely important and I expect my students to do so. I will always send them home with a goal or assignment that should be reached or completed by the next lesson to the best of the students ability. For my voice students, we always begin with breath. Proper breathing is the foundation for all good singing. Then we move on to warming up both the voice and the body. During warm-ups, we will focus technical concepts such as breath control and support, vowel placement, and optimum vocal production. In most lessons (time permitting) we will work through a piece of music, one of their choosing or, if needed, I will recommend a piece. We finish each lesson with a review of the concepts we discussed during the lesson and practice goals for the week. For my piano students, I begin with finger placement and keyboard awareness. Depending on the students age and level, we will use both a music book and a music theory book (for very young students, I will hold off on the music theory and focus mostly on finger placement and keyboard awareness). Each week, I will assign two pieces of music and pages in the music theory book (again depending upon student's age and level). Students are expected to prepare the assignments by practicing at home and have them ready at the next lesson. Communication is something very important to me as a teacher. I want my students to feel comfortable expressing their needs and/or concerns, musically or otherwise and hope they would appreciate me, as the teacher, to do the same. *** Specialties *** Classical voice is definitely my specialty. I believe good classical technique is the basis for all good singing and can be applied to ALL musical genres.