Dear Willson Vocal Academy Family,
We are looking forward to another year of vocal arts at Willson Vocal Academy! In spite of the new normal of learning online, we have several new classes to offer our students this year in addition to their weekly/bi-monthly lessons. We thank each and every one of you that have continued your lessons during this challenging time. We sincerely appreciate your dedication and support!
We are excited about all the new prospects by learning online!
The hourly rates will be charged as follows:
Lisa Willson DeNolfo, $130/hour
Ian DeNolfo, $100/hour
Chelsea, Elizabeth, Allison, $90/hour
PERFORMING AND ACTING TECHNIQUE
The newest addition to our academy, Michelle Eugene, offered a fantastic 4-week course, "Acting Your Song: The Essential Skills" in August. Students received in-depth analysis of how to build their character within a song and transform their performance. Ms. Eugene will be offering a new online class in her ACTING YOUR SONG series. This will be a Movement-focused class to address a concern that comes up again and again: WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR ARMS! The 4-week class will help singers gain confidence in their physical stage presence, explore gesture in song, and introduce tools for physical characterization. ACTING YOUR SONG: What to Do with Your ARMS will meet every Tuesday 7-8:30pm for 4 weeks beginning September 22nd and ending October 13th. Michelle is also starting The Monologue Club - a monthly virtual meeting on the first Saturday of the month from 10-11am. Interested students will each bring a monologue to read and share with the group to help each other find audition material and get inspired. Students will discuss which monologues might work well for auditions and touch on ideas for finding monologues, editing and piecing monologues together, memorization tips, and more. Michelle is also available to schedule private online sessions for monologue coaching and dramatic coaching of songs. Watch out for a repeat offering of “ACTING YOUR SONG: The Essential Skills “as well.
COMPETITIONS
Greater Philadelphia NATS Competition (GPNATS) will be offered as an online submission this year. This competition has 17 divisions of singers which includes Middle School. The judging will take place as always. Teachers do not judge their own students, nor do the judges know whose student is singing in the videos. Judges will view the videos and write comments on the adjudication sheet as always, which each contestant will receive at the end of the competition. Please only enter with the advice and permission granted by your voice teacher.
PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY for GPNATS COMPETITON. FAILURE TO FOLLOW ALL OF THE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS EXACTLY CAN RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION. Dates have been extended to allow time for successful videotaping and uploading.
Starting Now
Make your song videos now! Follow these instructions from the NATS website thoroughly.
Failure to comply could result in disqualification. Other tips:
1. Registration opens in Auditionware.
October 13, 2020
2. The registration page will be open to allow you to load your individual videos of each required song. You have already paid, so there will be no additional fees for this process.
3. From your application repertoire, you will choose one song that will be your “Winners Recital Selection” and indicate this selection in the application. This is the song that will be broadcast in the event the student places or wins their category.
October 25, 2020
4. Applications close at 11:59pm
October 26 – November 5, 2020
5. After registration closes, the repertoire will be vetted by the GPNATS Board members, and the singers will be divided into categories.
6. Judges will be given assignments and deadlines to view, comment and score auditions. All of this will be done online and comments will be sent digitally at the end of the event.
7. Results will be communicated to the Treasurer for the sending out of certificates and awards.
November 7, 2020
8. Results will be announced online and a Virtual Honors Recital will be posted.
9. Certificates will be created with instructions for the next level of competition, checks written, and all materials will be mailed to the teachers of the selected students.
The Classical Singer
Annual Fall Competition for high school and college. There is a Musical Theater Division as well. Only ONE song is required
Fall Classical Singer Competition https://www.csmusic.net/content/convention/competition/
The Schmidt Vocal Competition- March 13- for High School and College only. The Schmidt Vocal Competition
https://schmidtvocalarts.org/programs/vocal-competition/
The Young Arts’ Competition (15-18-years of age)
https://www.youngarts.org/competition
Willson Vocal Academy Policies (2023-2024)
Address:
931 Sulgrave Lane
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Lisa’s iPhone- 610-505-2555 Ian’s iPhone- 484-612-8150
Parking
Please park by and above our mailbox up the hill as opposed to
down the hill. We have received complaints from our neighbors. You are welcome to pull up into our driveway as long as you are not blocking anyone in. Please be careful backing out of our driveway not to drive over our lights. Thank you.
Teaching Hours
Monday-Saturday- No Sundays
Missed Lessons
All teachers at Willson Vocal Academy must receive 24-hours notice for a missed lesson. If 24 hours notice is not received, we require the full payment for the missed lesson.There will be NO exceptions. It is the students responsibility to verify from the lesson reminder emails that their lesson times are correct.
If a child wakes up in the morning feeling ill and cannot go to school, call us immediately and we still can try to fill the time slot. If the student is well enough to go to school, he/ she can attend a voice lesson. It is on these days that you learn how to use vocal function exercises and how to work on your repertoire without singing. This is probably the single most important part of developing a cognitive and healthy vocal technique. If the student starts to feel ill the night before, give us notice. There is always a student that needs a make up lesson or an additional lesson. Please abide by this policy.
If you need to miss a lesson for any reason, and are interested in scheduling a make-up lesson, we will keep that in mind and let you know when we have a cancellation. Since you are reserving a weekly spot in the studio, it is expected that you will make music lessons a priority and schedule other activities around your lesson time.
Payment Policies
Payments for lessons are due at the beginning of each lesson and
this method of payment is much preferred. Invoices for the whole academy will be sent out every Sunday for the week ahead, and there is a clickable link included for online payment.
Any Past due balances of 30 days will incur a $30 late fee.
Accepted methods of payment include checks made out to Willson Vocal Academy, cash, credit card or PayPal. We do not accept Venmo.
Student Expectations
Please come to your lessons eager with questions, concerns or feed- back on what you have discovered during your week of practice. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to come to your lessons with positive energy and a great attitude! If you have prac- ticed and are eager to learn, so much more can be accomplished. Lessons are not meant for learning music or a once a week practice. They are designed for you to receive help on things you have worked on during the week and to have a professional teacher help you so- lidify your technique to become strong and efficient. You will not progress if you expect a lesson to be your once a week practice.
Bring your repertoire binder and any other music literature to EVERY lesson. We require a 1 and1/2 inch black binder that has copies of all your music that you are working on or planning to perform.
All music should be double-sided and hole punched. In addition, you can keep your music in non-glare slip covers. This way the accompa- nist has a preference as to wether or not they want to use the slip covers when playing your music.
Daily Quality Practice
In order for you to make the most progress, it is essential that you
set aside time each day for deliberate, concentrated, quality practice. If you take a 60 min lesson, regular daily practice of at least 20 min- utes is required. Occasionally, you may not be able to follow this reg- iment with a busy schedule, but this routine will move you along faster in the long run than a long marathon practice sessions one or two days a week.
During all practice sessions make sure you are in an environment free of distractions, including all screen devices! Each time you are pulled away from a concentrated practice, the brain takes a long time to refocus. Warm up first and then work on some specific technique exercises learned at your lessons and then work on your repertoire.
If you get vocally fatigued, stop immediately and bring this up with your teacher at your next lesson and we will discuss how to practice healthfully. Just because you may get tired or even perhaps have a cold, doesn’t mean you can’t write out your words or translations, lis- ten to the song and get it memorized.
We highly suggest that you record your lessons. Audio recordings or video should be studied during your practice time. If you need an ac- companiment to practice with, tell your teacher at the beginning of the lesson and she/he will play the accompaniment track so you can record it. There is also an amazing app for IOS that is a great source of accompaniment tracks called Appcompanist. It does require a monthly subscription but has a vast repertoire of both classical and musical theater and offers many advanced controls such as transpo- sitions and tempo adjustments.
To offer our students the best experience we are involved in many organizations such as, the National Association of Teachers of
Singers, the Voice Symposium, Musical Coterie of Wayne, Bryn Mawr Day, Bryn Mawr Twilight Concert Series and various other community organizations which provide us with outreach opportunities. These organizations trust us and enjoy our high standard of singers. The more you perform, the more you learn, not only about singing but about the people in your community. Sharing your talents is the most important part of being a musician.
Communication
The studio communicates mainly through e-mail and text. You will receive a 24-hour notification emails of your upcoming lessons. If you prefer, we can also send a text notification as well. It is recommended that your email be checked on a daily basis for updates. We kindly
ask that you not text or call Ian and Lisa after 9:30 pm or before 8:30 am. Chelsea, Queade, Elizabeth and Allison can notify their students of their preferred hours of communication.
Visitors at Lessons
We would respectfully request that there be no visitors at lessons. More often than not, the student is distracted when friends, parents or relatives are in the studio during a lesson. Experience has shown that the student feels constrained and progress is slowed. We will al- low parents to come in for the last 10 minutes if they would like to hear what their child worked on during the course of the hour.
Tribute Series/Holiday Extravaganza/Miscast Cabaret/Gazebo Spring Recitals
In 2017 we began our Tribute Series and it was a tremendous suc- cess. These concerts our approximately a little over an hour in length and singers are selected by all 6 teachers. Even if you are not selected for a particular concert, we encourage everyone to attend. These concert gems are packed with information and fun trivial facts as well as wonderful singing! Each singer is required to do some research on their song and the composer that we are celebrating. They share with the audience some interesting facts about their song and can even dress up in an appropriate costumes if they so choose. Dates TBA
We are looking forward to meeting all of our new families! Musically yours,
Lisa, Ian, Chelsea, Elizabeth, and Allison
We are looking forward to another year of vocal arts at Willson Vocal Academy! In spite of the new normal of learning online, we have several new classes to offer our students this year in addition to their weekly/bi-monthly lessons. We thank each and every one of you that have continued your lessons during this challenging time. We sincerely appreciate your dedication and support!
We are excited about all the new prospects by learning online!
The hourly rates will be charged as follows:
Lisa Willson DeNolfo, $130/hour
Ian DeNolfo, $100/hour
Chelsea, Elizabeth, Allison, $90/hour
PERFORMING AND ACTING TECHNIQUE
The newest addition to our academy, Michelle Eugene, offered a fantastic 4-week course, "Acting Your Song: The Essential Skills" in August. Students received in-depth analysis of how to build their character within a song and transform their performance. Ms. Eugene will be offering a new online class in her ACTING YOUR SONG series. This will be a Movement-focused class to address a concern that comes up again and again: WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR ARMS! The 4-week class will help singers gain confidence in their physical stage presence, explore gesture in song, and introduce tools for physical characterization. ACTING YOUR SONG: What to Do with Your ARMS will meet every Tuesday 7-8:30pm for 4 weeks beginning September 22nd and ending October 13th. Michelle is also starting The Monologue Club - a monthly virtual meeting on the first Saturday of the month from 10-11am. Interested students will each bring a monologue to read and share with the group to help each other find audition material and get inspired. Students will discuss which monologues might work well for auditions and touch on ideas for finding monologues, editing and piecing monologues together, memorization tips, and more. Michelle is also available to schedule private online sessions for monologue coaching and dramatic coaching of songs. Watch out for a repeat offering of “ACTING YOUR SONG: The Essential Skills “as well.
COMPETITIONS
Greater Philadelphia NATS Competition (GPNATS) will be offered as an online submission this year. This competition has 17 divisions of singers which includes Middle School. The judging will take place as always. Teachers do not judge their own students, nor do the judges know whose student is singing in the videos. Judges will view the videos and write comments on the adjudication sheet as always, which each contestant will receive at the end of the competition. Please only enter with the advice and permission granted by your voice teacher.
PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY for GPNATS COMPETITON. FAILURE TO FOLLOW ALL OF THE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS EXACTLY CAN RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION. Dates have been extended to allow time for successful videotaping and uploading.
Starting Now
Make your song videos now! Follow these instructions from the NATS website thoroughly.
Failure to comply could result in disqualification. Other tips:
- You will need a video camera or good cell phone/tablet camera to make your recording from a stationary position. No camera movement is allowed.
- You will also need an ANONYMOUS YouTube account for the uploading of videos. Please create a special account for this purpose, not an account that has other videos by you that may come up in the suggested videos. The teacher of the student should not be identified in the videos or from the account.
- Select “Public” or “Unlisted” in the Privacy Settings found under the Broadcasting and Sharing Options section when uploading your video file to YouTube. If you select “Private”, adjudicators will not be able to access your submissions.
- Also click the “Not for Children” in the Privacy Settings
- A list of available pianists will be published for contact.
1. Registration opens in Auditionware.
October 13, 2020
2. The registration page will be open to allow you to load your individual videos of each required song. You have already paid, so there will be no additional fees for this process.
3. From your application repertoire, you will choose one song that will be your “Winners Recital Selection” and indicate this selection in the application. This is the song that will be broadcast in the event the student places or wins their category.
October 25, 2020
4. Applications close at 11:59pm
October 26 – November 5, 2020
5. After registration closes, the repertoire will be vetted by the GPNATS Board members, and the singers will be divided into categories.
6. Judges will be given assignments and deadlines to view, comment and score auditions. All of this will be done online and comments will be sent digitally at the end of the event.
7. Results will be communicated to the Treasurer for the sending out of certificates and awards.
November 7, 2020
8. Results will be announced online and a Virtual Honors Recital will be posted.
9. Certificates will be created with instructions for the next level of competition, checks written, and all materials will be mailed to the teachers of the selected students.
The Classical Singer
Annual Fall Competition for high school and college. There is a Musical Theater Division as well. Only ONE song is required
Fall Classical Singer Competition https://www.csmusic.net/content/convention/competition/
The Schmidt Vocal Competition- March 13- for High School and College only. The Schmidt Vocal Competition
https://schmidtvocalarts.org/programs/vocal-competition/
The Young Arts’ Competition (15-18-years of age)
https://www.youngarts.org/competition
Willson Vocal Academy Policies (2023-2024)
Address:
931 Sulgrave Lane
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Lisa’s iPhone- 610-505-2555 Ian’s iPhone- 484-612-8150
Parking
Please park by and above our mailbox up the hill as opposed to
down the hill. We have received complaints from our neighbors. You are welcome to pull up into our driveway as long as you are not blocking anyone in. Please be careful backing out of our driveway not to drive over our lights. Thank you.
Teaching Hours
Monday-Saturday- No Sundays
Missed Lessons
All teachers at Willson Vocal Academy must receive 24-hours notice for a missed lesson. If 24 hours notice is not received, we require the full payment for the missed lesson.There will be NO exceptions. It is the students responsibility to verify from the lesson reminder emails that their lesson times are correct.
If a child wakes up in the morning feeling ill and cannot go to school, call us immediately and we still can try to fill the time slot. If the student is well enough to go to school, he/ she can attend a voice lesson. It is on these days that you learn how to use vocal function exercises and how to work on your repertoire without singing. This is probably the single most important part of developing a cognitive and healthy vocal technique. If the student starts to feel ill the night before, give us notice. There is always a student that needs a make up lesson or an additional lesson. Please abide by this policy.
If you need to miss a lesson for any reason, and are interested in scheduling a make-up lesson, we will keep that in mind and let you know when we have a cancellation. Since you are reserving a weekly spot in the studio, it is expected that you will make music lessons a priority and schedule other activities around your lesson time.
Payment Policies
Payments for lessons are due at the beginning of each lesson and
this method of payment is much preferred. Invoices for the whole academy will be sent out every Sunday for the week ahead, and there is a clickable link included for online payment.
Any Past due balances of 30 days will incur a $30 late fee.
Accepted methods of payment include checks made out to Willson Vocal Academy, cash, credit card or PayPal. We do not accept Venmo.
Student Expectations
Please come to your lessons eager with questions, concerns or feed- back on what you have discovered during your week of practice. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to come to your lessons with positive energy and a great attitude! If you have prac- ticed and are eager to learn, so much more can be accomplished. Lessons are not meant for learning music or a once a week practice. They are designed for you to receive help on things you have worked on during the week and to have a professional teacher help you so- lidify your technique to become strong and efficient. You will not progress if you expect a lesson to be your once a week practice.
Bring your repertoire binder and any other music literature to EVERY lesson. We require a 1 and1/2 inch black binder that has copies of all your music that you are working on or planning to perform.
All music should be double-sided and hole punched. In addition, you can keep your music in non-glare slip covers. This way the accompa- nist has a preference as to wether or not they want to use the slip covers when playing your music.
Daily Quality Practice
In order for you to make the most progress, it is essential that you
set aside time each day for deliberate, concentrated, quality practice. If you take a 60 min lesson, regular daily practice of at least 20 min- utes is required. Occasionally, you may not be able to follow this reg- iment with a busy schedule, but this routine will move you along faster in the long run than a long marathon practice sessions one or two days a week.
During all practice sessions make sure you are in an environment free of distractions, including all screen devices! Each time you are pulled away from a concentrated practice, the brain takes a long time to refocus. Warm up first and then work on some specific technique exercises learned at your lessons and then work on your repertoire.
If you get vocally fatigued, stop immediately and bring this up with your teacher at your next lesson and we will discuss how to practice healthfully. Just because you may get tired or even perhaps have a cold, doesn’t mean you can’t write out your words or translations, lis- ten to the song and get it memorized.
We highly suggest that you record your lessons. Audio recordings or video should be studied during your practice time. If you need an ac- companiment to practice with, tell your teacher at the beginning of the lesson and she/he will play the accompaniment track so you can record it. There is also an amazing app for IOS that is a great source of accompaniment tracks called Appcompanist. It does require a monthly subscription but has a vast repertoire of both classical and musical theater and offers many advanced controls such as transpo- sitions and tempo adjustments.
To offer our students the best experience we are involved in many organizations such as, the National Association of Teachers of
Singers, the Voice Symposium, Musical Coterie of Wayne, Bryn Mawr Day, Bryn Mawr Twilight Concert Series and various other community organizations which provide us with outreach opportunities. These organizations trust us and enjoy our high standard of singers. The more you perform, the more you learn, not only about singing but about the people in your community. Sharing your talents is the most important part of being a musician.
Communication
The studio communicates mainly through e-mail and text. You will receive a 24-hour notification emails of your upcoming lessons. If you prefer, we can also send a text notification as well. It is recommended that your email be checked on a daily basis for updates. We kindly
ask that you not text or call Ian and Lisa after 9:30 pm or before 8:30 am. Chelsea, Queade, Elizabeth and Allison can notify their students of their preferred hours of communication.
Visitors at Lessons
We would respectfully request that there be no visitors at lessons. More often than not, the student is distracted when friends, parents or relatives are in the studio during a lesson. Experience has shown that the student feels constrained and progress is slowed. We will al- low parents to come in for the last 10 minutes if they would like to hear what their child worked on during the course of the hour.
Tribute Series/Holiday Extravaganza/Miscast Cabaret/Gazebo Spring Recitals
In 2017 we began our Tribute Series and it was a tremendous suc- cess. These concerts our approximately a little over an hour in length and singers are selected by all 6 teachers. Even if you are not selected for a particular concert, we encourage everyone to attend. These concert gems are packed with information and fun trivial facts as well as wonderful singing! Each singer is required to do some research on their song and the composer that we are celebrating. They share with the audience some interesting facts about their song and can even dress up in an appropriate costumes if they so choose. Dates TBA
We are looking forward to meeting all of our new families! Musically yours,
Lisa, Ian, Chelsea, Elizabeth, and Allison