I started taking voice lessons when I was 17. I had heard anecdotally from my high school choir teacher that singers could get paid working for churches. Since I had been in virtually every choir that was available to me since I was in 3rd grade, including being in the chorus in musicals, advanced, chamber, and district choirs, I thought this might be something I could do. I opened up the literal yellow pages to “churches” and cold called every church listed there. To my surprise, I received one call back from the very church that housed the nursery school I attended that was, at one time, my family church, St John’s in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
I worked there for an entire season, from September until June, singing every Sunday and special church service including Christmas and Easter. I made somewhere around $35 per hour, which at the time, blew my mind despite the fact it was only 4 hours a week. Still I thought I was doing great for a 17 year old!
I also had heard that one of my favorite singers in my choir took voice lessons, so, once I had a job, singing in the church, I booked my first voice lessons. Again, I opened the yellow pages and looked up music schools. I found Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and I gave them a call. I started my voice lessons just a week or two later with Mrs. Kathryn Blum Barone. I stayed there until I started my Freshman year at West Chester University where I ultimately became a music major with voice as my instrument. There I was able to take 3 semesters of voice lessons.
Unfortunately, I changed my major and ended up getting a degree in IT and didn’t take voice lessons again until I attended Temple University in 2016. There I studied theatre and eventually joined the choir and got access to voice lessons. There I got one semester of voice lessons with grad student, Tyler Tejada.
Soon, I hope to return to voice lessons and I find them invaluable for building a proper singing technique which has helped me tremendously as a performer, both singing and acting, even understanding how to reproduce different sounds in accents and dialects.
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