About Jac

Long before I became a voice teacher, I was the singer who refused to pick a genre. I wanted to understand why my voice behaved one way in musical theatre, another in classical music and differently again in pop, rock, country, folk, choral music and the recording studio. That curiosity—and my own struggle to solve technical problems after being handed generic advice like “breathe,” “relax” or “use your diaphragm”—eventually became the foundation of my teaching.

I earned a BFA in Musical Theatre from Sam Houston State University and continued my voice education through advanced Somatic Voicework™ training at Shenandoah University, workshops in Estill Voice Training, Linklater voice work and study of the body-based Alexander Technique. My training encompasses contemporary commercial vocal technique, classical technique including bel canto, voice science, anatomy, physiology and biomechanics.

I also hold a BS in Psychology from CUNY Queens College. My study of psychology and neuroscience deepened my interest in how people learn, how the nervous system shapes behavior and how the brain and body acquire complex motor skills—all of which led me further into vocology and vocal pedagogy.

My acting education includes a study-abroad summer intensive at RADA and the two-year intensive at the William Esper Studio. Over years of focused acting study, I trained in Meisner, Stanislavski and Adler technique and studied in London with Derek Jacobi and John Barton.

I have studied with leading voice teachers and coaches including Aaron Hagan, Joan Lader, Jacob Carr and Tom Burke. Learning across multiple pedagogical traditions has given me a large and adaptable technical skill set, including many ways to approach a vocal problem—and has made me deeply skeptical of any teacher who claims to possess the one correct method for every singer.

My life as a performer has crossed many of the same broad areas as my training. I have worked as an actor, singer, songwriter, studio musician, director, composer, recording artist and producer, and have performed alongside  Grammy award winners Chaka Khan and Faith Esham and Tony award winner Ben Vereen, to name a few. I have performed professionally in musical theatre, opera, choral music, contemporary commercial music and, at one point, in a punk band. Each part of that history has taught me something different about what a voice must be able to do when it leaves the practice room.

Teaching brings those strands together: the analytical and the artistic, science and sensation, disciplined study and creative instinct. I am endlessly interested in the process by which something ephemeral becomes understandable—and something unreliable becomes a skill a singer can genuinely call their own.