About
My husband and I moved here with our kids late last year from the NYC area and are enjoying settling into the wonderful community of Durham, NC. I am a professional working actor and musician with 16 years experience teaching piano, voice, acting. I also compose and direct musical theater and theater. I'm excited to finally set up my home studio here in South Durham.
I teach my piano and voice students to express in music what they otherwise will not, or cannot, put into words; I encourage students and parents to think of music as its own language. My teaching is positive and I intend to maintain an environment that makes students feel happier for having engaged in music lessons. Each student has unique learning needs and I tailor the curriculum to match. Each curriculum includes aspects of ear training, theory, musicality, music history, and expression.
I teach my acting students to build the skills needed for professional, amateur, and academic theatrical performance—including monologues, scene work, script analysis, audition technique—as well as real world skills like creative thinking, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Photos and videos
Reviews
J. S.
Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
Assessing where you are, where you want to be, and discovering something new about your craft.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
M.A. Performance (Voice)
B.A. Performance (Voice)
B.A. Speech Communications
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
Tuition includes lesson time plus the time and resources spent preparing for each student. Materials, such as sheet music, scripts, and books are not included. Tuition is payable in full before each lesson. There is no annual registration or membership fee. Each half-hour lesson is a $35 investment, each one hour lesson is a $60 investment. You may purchase a discount package of 4 half-hour lessons for $120 or a package of 4 one-hour lessons for $220. Most piano lessons and voice/acting lessons for beginners will be 30 minutes. You may enroll for one-hour lessons that are comprised of any combination of piano, voice, and acting.
What advice would you give a student looking to hire a teacher in your area of expertise?
Find a teacher you inspires you to study. A teacher who is curious and excited about this craft.
We have trainers at the gym; we have life coaches; we learn to eat well; we take dance classes or yoga classes or pilates classes; we may even take a performance class or two; we keep getting new head shots; we keep updating our websites; we keep auditioning...
but do we study?
Do we learn how we do what we do?
Finishing a program doesn't mean you know.
Being cast in a show doesn't mean you know.
You know when you know. And the more you know the more you want to know. Because knowing reveals how much there is to continue to learn!
Why study? Because you must to truly reveal what you have, what you need to hone, what you need to develop, in order to summon your talent at will.
If you call yourself a performer, or an artist who performs, then you are connected to the journey of KNOWING. Knowing requires enquiry; enquiry requires getting real; getting real reveals truth; truth reveals authenticity.
Study.
I often ask my singers, "why are you here? What do you feel you need today? What do you feel you are here to do?"
Sometimes they know, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they think they know, and as we start to work, it is revealed what they really need!
So, why study?
Why wouldn't you?
If you say you are an artist, or a performer, then your craft DEMANDS study, observation, changes, adjustments, tweaking, and an honest and true place to explore.
What questions should students think through before talking to teachers about their needs?
1.) What's your immediate goal?
2.) What do you hope to get out of the experience that has nothing to do with the art itself?