Re: Voice Teachers--what to look for?

mstee
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:17:19 +0000

Yep, East Bay. Moraga is a little bit out of the way from where we live, but not bad, depending on the time of day (traffic). If you have a name, I’d love to have it–you can PM me. I have collected the names of four teachers. I thought we’d just start with this one, and see how it goes, because I don’t know any of them personally, and how do you know anything until you’ve met the person? --and this one is reasonably close by. It kind of seems like choosing a dentist. There are a ton of them to choose from, but how do you narrow down the list? The few people in this area that I’ve met whose kids take voice all have different teachers. There doesn’t seem to be any one name that pops up over and over as in “Oh he/she is THE ONE!” Or maybe its because my kids haven’t been singing long enough for us to have the “inside scoop.” One of my friend’s daughters just started lessons with another teacher, and you can be sure I’ll be watching to see how she progresses (she has a lovely voice already, we’ll see what the teacher has her do with it). I also noticed recently that Berkeley Rep has a voice teacher, and it looks like she does shorter term things/classes, which might be just the thing for the 12 year old.

(I noticed that because the 12 year old and her friend recently auditioned there for Brundibar. D was chosen to be an alternate for the children’s chorus, which may have been a good thing in this case, because there are 52 performances from mid-Nov until end of Dec–which seems like a LOT of performances to me, and I don’t know that she would have been able to do that, esp. since we don’t live in Berkeley, and there is the commute time to take into account. Does that seem like a lot to you guys? Anyway, she is hoping that she may get a chance to perform in some of the shows if a flu bug comes along and wipes a few kids out for a couple of weeks, but of course, she may not get to do anything . . .)

Good idea about the SF Conservatory. If things don’t work out with this teacher, I will give them a call. Can you tell me more about the Gilbert and Sullivan camp? That sounds like something the 16 year old would be interested in.