This is a photo of me in my last session of graduate school at Shenandoah Conservatory. I had spent 2 years there studying for my masters in Contemporary commercial music vocal pedagogy. Frankly, I was a little lost. I knew I wanted to teach voice but I also knew I needed to do something different, exciting and worthwhile. I was torn between going back to my studio in Ohio or starting a new one here in the DMV.
During grad school, I was lucky enough to work for Arena Stage and Imagination Stage. This led to a few students in the Bethesda area. While in these final sessions of school, I knew what my heart had decided. I was going to stay in the area because DC is where you go to make real change in America.
Grad school had brought about a lot of changes in my life and I knew I wanted to do more than just teach amazing lessons (which I still love doing). The one thing that weighed on my heart was the minimal amount of resources available for transgender singers and artists. I knew I had to do something to help and began working with transgender students for free at my first studio. I do this to this day. I am committed to inclusiveness in my studio and in the music world. So if you take lessons from our studio you are actually not just giving yourself or your student lessons. You are helping our studio create space for transgender artists to sing to be heard and to know they are not alone.
We at nerd singing know it's never cool to exclude and we want to create the world we want to live in. Join us! Change the world one voice lesson at a time. If you are a member of the trans community please reach out to schedule your lesson. It's free. Love you all. Keep nerd singing.
Stephen
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