I am a retired professional opera singer and actress. I teach a method which leans a great deal toward relaxing body tension, and allowing the breath to do its job. I enjoy using humor to make my lessons relaxing and fun, and I love to talk about "the Zen of singing" - finding the deepest places in your body to completely nourish yourself when singing. For more info, please check my website at www.meenmann.com.
Linda Noble Brown, coloratura soprano, has a vast performing history throughout the continental U.S. and Europe, in opera, musical theatre and oratorio. Favorite leading roles include Zerbinetta, Baby Doe, Cunegonde, and Olympia. Equally adept at musical theatre, she has played leading roles in Pirates of Penzance, She Loves Me, Carousel, and The Sound of Music, among others.
Orchestral performances include solo appearances in Poulenc's Gloria, Beethoven's Mass in C, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Vivaldi's Gloria and Faure's Requiem.
I sang professionally in Southern California and the Northwest for 15 years. I have performed Susanna, in The Marriage of Figaro; Pamina, in The Magic Flute; Adina, in Elixer of Love; Eurilla, in Orlando Palladino; Monica, in The Medium. Musical Theater roles include: Valencienne in The Merry Widow; Johanna in Sweeney Todd; Polly Peachum in Threepenny Opera; Anne Egarman in A Little Night Music; Nellie in South Pacific, and starred in Sondheim's Company.
I came to the Monterey Peninsula in 1980 as one of the Bach Festivals hired musicians. In my ten years with the festival I filled a wide variety of solo assignments. Upon moving to the Peninsula I helped establish the Monterey Peninsula Symphony Chorus which is alive and flourishing today. I served on the Carmel Music Society Board of Directors and enjoyed being one of their booking agents. I have had a long and varied musical career as a classical singer and musical theater performer with over 50 leading roles to my credit. My main focus today is my voice studio.
Maureen Chowning studied at the Boston and New England Conservatories of Music before moving to the San Francisco area. She has since appeared on the Public Broadcasting System's NOVA series and Smithsonian World with Max Mathews, demonstrating his Radio Baton and conductor program. She has also performed at concerts in the UK, Canada, Poland, and Japan and at the International Electronic Music Festival at Bourges, France, where in 1990 she gave the world premiere of Solemn Songs for Evening by Richard Boulanger and in 1997 she gave the premiere of Sea Songs by Dexter Morrill.
Sarah's recent performances include Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro with San Francisco Cabaret Opera, The Cherub in Telemann's Der gedultige Socrates with San Francisco Early Music Society and The Legend of the Werewolf at DLOC. She is an active performing member with Contra Costa Performing Arts Society and is a music director and teacher at Diablo Theatre Company in Pleasant Hill.
Singer, flutist, conductor and producer Martha Rodríguez-Salazar has been bringing Latin American folk, classical and contemporary music to the Bay Area for more than 20 years.
For her outstanding leadership in promoting and developing Mexican music and culture in the Bay Area Martha was recognized as a "Luminary" in 2011 by the Mexican Consulate in SF and as "Excelencia Latina" by LAM and Mundo Fox in 2013.
Besides voice, Dorothy also teaches beginning piano to adults who never had piano as children.
Ms. Neff has been teaching voice since 1995. She maintains a private voice studio for all levels and musical styles; from the student of classical to the musical theater; from beginner to professional. She taught group voice classes at UCSF from 1995-2005. She believes in a VERY methodical learning process to help the singer discover their voice while getting a complete understanding of the workings of the voice.
Please see www.MADDIVA.me Thank you!