Maeve H  
Instruments: Piano, Voice
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Folk, Musical Theater, Opera

I have four years of experience tutoring both native and non-native speakers of English at the University of Kentucky Writing Center. While I have taught only a handful of music students for a short amount of time, I believe that my extensive performance background and rich technical foundation, combined with my years of teaching and tutoring student writers, makes me uniquely qualified to lead you on your vocal journey. I also have two years of experience playing piano and I am qualified to teach beginning piano students.

My approach is twofold: addressing the mind and addressing the body. I always have beginners learn how to stretch and release tension before they even sing, just like any athlete would. I have them develop a pre-singing routine including these stretches so they can both prepare themselves physically and mentally for every lesson and practice session. Then, I teach them basic warmups which help them build an awareness of their breath and where their body is in space. We begin to work on the voice that way, and then graduate to vocal exercises from the Vaccai exercise book and simple vocal pieces such as folk songs or one of the 24 Italian Arias. As students advance, or if they come to me at an advanced stage already, we move on to more difficult art songs or arias from operas, or branch out into the student's desired repertoire if they do not wish to study classical voice specifically. While physical technique is important, I also believe that the mental and emotional game of singing is equally important to a singer's success. Any issues that arise, such as performance anxiety, lack of confidence, or other personal factors which interfere with singing will be addressed. Great technique should allow a singer to work like a well-oiled machine, inside and out.