Vocal Coach New York

e deep respect for my art which was unearthed by the best Performing Artist instructors in the world at Performing Arts High school in New York. Peter Treitler, Bill Britton of WPIX's Bozo The Clown, Jerome Escow, Paul Mooney, Anthony Abson were my teachers, some of the alumni include Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Ben Vereen and Vanessa Williams among many illustrious others. I studied Musical Theatre under Rosetta Lenoire (National Medal of Art Awardee) and AMAS Repertory Founder in the New York summer youth employment program. I am a proud Alumni of Young Arts – National Foundation for advancement of the Arts winner along with past winners Nicki Minaj, Billy Porter, Josh Groban, Terence Blanchard among others in the Presidential scholar program. My education was due to talent and dedication, but unfortunately these same opportunities afforded me have become more and more scarce and are in jeopardy today. My many mentors were Glen Close, Tyne Daily and Carol Burnett whom I worked with at Robert Redford's Sundance Theatre Lab and Ruben Blades who I worked with on Broadway. Good Producers will tell you your education and training are more important than your credits. As an instructor one can only teach what one has been taught and I was taught self-respect, honesty, truth in acting, vocal development, public speaking, presentation, diction and musical theatre by the very best. I bring this very best to each of my students. All the knowledge, dedication to the work and the respect for the process is infused in my students regardless of income. They learn that to be an Artist comes with a huge responsibility to hold up a mirror to society and expose the beauty and the brutality, the wrong and the right. Artists need to respect their instruments which are their bodies and to watch their nutrition and their overall intake and health. Even if they choose not to become a Performing Artist they will learn skills that they will utilize all their lives daily. One classmate and alumni at Performing Arts High school Jessica Zufolo was appointed by President Barack Obama as Deputy Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service and uses what she has learned as a Performing Artist daily. Students of the Performing Arts who become working Artists develop skills to be a beacon for others who need a voice to illuminate their situations and inspire community and connection. There is nothing better than an audience touched by the performance. Instruction in the arts is not a luxury. Society and by osmosis Government that does not value the arts is counterproductive and an extreme danger to our very culture which is our greatest export. We as a society must reinvigorate our values and shift priorities to fund the organizations that are producing the new great Artists. -Edwin Lugo