Emily C  
Instruments: Piano, Voice
Styles: Classical, Musical Theater, Opera

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance (and a minor in dance) from Millikin University (Decatur, IL) and a Master's degree in Vocal Performance from Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL) where I focused on vocal pedagogy. During both my undergrad and graduate studies, I was active in the college choirs and opera productions. I performed a variety of roles including Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Countess in the Marriage of Figaro, Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea, and Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto. During college, I studied Italian, French, and German which have helped me in singing and teaching music in these languages. I also had the opportunity to do a study abroad Opera program with Oberlin in Italy where I was able to study with teachers from the Eastman School of Music.

I taught private voice and piano lessons lessons at Northern IL. and a variety of music studios from 2007-2012 . I taught over 400 students ages 3-65. I helped students successfully prepare auditions for college, musical theatre productions, all-state choir, summer music programs, and more. I taught students in a wide variety of musical styles and skill levels. I was also able to sing in two professional choirs from 2010-2019.

For the last 7 years, in addition to teaching private piano and voice lessons in my private studio, I also served as the choir director/music theory/music appreciation instructor at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a small state-funded boarding high school for gifted students. There, I helped students prepare for solo/ensemble contest and all-state choir, directed concerts, and collaborated with the drama club to put on musical theatre scenes programs.

For beginning piano students I typically start with Faber's piano adventure series--I typically have students work through the lesson, performance, and theory books while providing them with additional repertoire on the side (pop, disney, classical pieces etc.)

For voice students, I typically spend about a third of the lesson working on technique--proper breathing, posture, extending range, working on tone quality etc. Then the rest of the lesson is spent working on solo song repertoire. I like to get the student's input on what they are interested in working on and build them a repertoire collection that will help them meet their musical goals.