The Academy of Music

Happy Holidays! 🎶🎄 10 Academy voice students brought festive cheer to three community events, singing for over 100 people at Colonial Place and Harbor’s Edge Retirement & Assisted Living. Music truly makes the season brighter! ❤️

The inaugural 2025 Summer Voice Intensive has concluded and we couldn’t be prouder of our students! They concluded the week with a moving and meaningful recital, accompanied by the incredible Oksana Lutsyshyn. Each student demonstrated growth throughout the week and we loved watching them grow as performers and musicians! Our hearts are full of gratitude for everyone who made this program possible. But, mostly, our hearts are full of love and admiration for our 9 participants who rose to the occasion at each opportunity and conducted themselves as young professionals.

Until next year SVI 🎶🫡💕

We can’t believe Day #4 is done! Students enjoyed a morning mindfulness lesson with Hannah including breathing techniques and sensory awareness. In Pedagogy, students learned about how to best care for their voice! The afternoon featured a workshop with Megan on how to develop your character in a song/aria, followed by a masterclass on style and technique with Karen Hoy! What a great four days of learning we’ve had!

Day #3 of SVI ✅ Our singers started the day learning about the vocal tract in Pedagogy with Megan. In the afternoon, the students and faculty gathered for a seminar on performance anxiety coping strategies led by Hannah. Amongst courses, students enjoyed voice and piano lessons! Brandon Eldredge from Virginia Opera joined us for a fantastic masterclass on audition skills, including mock auditions with three of our students! What an outstanding day!

Day #2 of SVI was full of learning and singing! Students enjoyed morning yoga with Megan, as well as an afternoon session on how to practice including body, mind and vocal tract warm up exercises. We all enjoyed singing with today’s masterclass guest, Cynthia Vaughn, during her workshop “Singing by Eye and Ear: Strategies to Build Sight Singing and Aural Skills.” Thank you for joining us, Cynthia!!

Day 1 of SVI was a smashing success! Students enjoyed their vocal pedagogy, music theory and diction classes in the morning. They spent their afternoon doing improvisation and working with SLP, Katelyn Swiader, during her excellent masterclass on vocal health and harnessing your breath power! 🎶🎭🫁

Our final masterclass offering next week comes from Virginia Opera's own Brandon Eldredge! Brandon's masterclass is called "Auditions: Perspective from Behind the Table."

Delivering performances of “zest and great beauty” with “highly expressive guidance at the podium,” conductor Brandon Eldredge is a passionate and multi-faceted collaborator, having led musicians across the United States, Germany, and Sweden. He has served as Associate Conductor and Chorus Master of Virginia Opera since 2019, leading a multitude of performances from the orchestra pit, including La Bohème, La Traviata, and this most recent season’s production of Carmen. He led the company’s production of The Barber of Seville in 2023. He served as Associate Conductor and a Guest Principal Conductor with Central City Opera in Colorado during their 2021-2024 festival seasons, conducting performances of Romeo and Juliet, Die Fledermaus, and Rigoletto and leading productions of Dido and Aeneas, The Pirates of Penzance, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. In 2018-2019, he trained as an assistant conductor with Opera Saratoga in upstate New York. He has regularly guest and cover conducted the Virginia Symphony Orchestra since 2022 as part of their classical, pops, and outreach programming. Eldredge’s early training as a pianist has led to collaborations with opera companies and vocal ensembles such as Sacramento Opera, Opera Southwest, American Lyric Theater, Theater Bonn in Germany and recently with the Virginia Chorale in Norfolk. He will serve as Virginia Opera’s Director of Emerging Artists in the upcoming 2025-2026 season, having spent many years coaching hundreds of singers around the country, in addition to conducting performances of La Cenerentola and Jake Heggie’s Intelligence. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and daughter.

We are so looking forward to welcoming Katelyn Swiader next week for our Summer Voice Intensive!

Katelyn Swiader, M.S. Ed., CCC-SLP is a voice specialised speech-language pathologist, professional singer, and voice coach with over 15 years of experience. As a singer herself, Katelyn has toured as a vocalist with opera companies and rock bands. Katelyn has worked with artists from Metropolitan Opera stars to Grammy winners. As the founder of Sound Waves Voice & Communication, she specializes in helping singers and speakers become more captivating using her signature Sound Waves Method. This approach blends the science of the voice voice with the artistry of singing to resolve vocal tension and unlock vocal flexibility with ease. Katelyn is also the creator and actor in the upcoming kids' YouTube show "Sing, Play, Say!", teaching speech and language skills through play and music.

Connect and follow Katelyn online for more information and free knowledge:

Voice and Communication Coaching and Rehabilitation: www.soundwavesvc.com and on all socials
Website: www.soundwavesvc.com

"Sing, Play, Say!", a Kids' YouTube show on Speech and Language, follow on all socials

We are thrilled to welcome Karen Hoy as one of our masterclass presenters next week!

Karen Hoy, originally from Philadelphia, received her Bachelor of Music degree from Temple University and Master of Science degree from The Juilliard School. Ms. Hoy has performed extensively in recital, opera and oratorio and has taught voice for over forty years. Her students have been accepted at major music schools and conservatories and have sung at some of the major opera houses in the United States, Europe and on Broadway. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and served as President and Governor of the Virginia Chapter of NATS for many years. Ms. Hoy was the Founder and Artistic Director of Cantabile Project, an arts non-profit established for the promotion of art song through performance and education. Presently, she teaches “Opera For Everyone” at Old Dominion University through the Community Music Division.

We are so excited for our Summer Voice Intensive next week, which will include a masterclass with Cynthia Vaughn!

Singing by Eye and Ear: Strategies to Build Sight Singing and Aural Recall Skills

Cynthia Vaughn shares strategies to enhance music reading, rhythms, listening, improvisation, and creativity. Singing “by ear” may come naturally or may be learned. What we call “reading” music notation is really a map or a guide to follow. Real music, however, is the sound you create from the squiggles on the page AND from the sounds you hear in your head. Both are useful. Singing by sight improves concentration and accuracy, while singing by ear gets your eyes out of the music score, improves listening skills, and uses a different part of your brain.

Cynthia Vaughn is a respected singer, teacher, and author. She is co-author with Meribeth Dayme of four editions of The Singing Book, a leading group-voice textbook and song anthology. Cynthia has been a clinician and presenter for regional, national, and international conferences and workshops. She was an invited Master Teacher for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program and previously taught voice at Colorado State University and Art Connects International summer program in Urbino, Italy. She lives in Norfolk, Virginia, USA with her husband and two tuxedo cats.

We are SO excited to be offering Prezuki early childhood music classes with Hannah Cayem! Registration is still open!

The Academy of Music is restarting our Band-Together program!

Led by instructors Baxley Roberts and William Erickson, Band-Together is an inclusive community band program that provides instrumental music instruction for individuals with and without disabilities on traditional band instruments.

Registration is $35 to participate only in Wednesday night ensemble rehearsals or $100 for 12 private lessons plus ensemble rehearsals.

For more information please feel free to contact me here or at [email protected]