Heather Engebretson
Lesson Feesfrom $35.00 / 30 Minutes
Promotions Available
About
Hey, guys!
My name's Heather and I'm a soprano living in Germany. I studied in the States (I'm American) for both my Master's and Bachelor's-- at The Juilliard School and Cleveland Institute of Music, respectively-- and, since wrapping up my Master's in 2013 have lived in Europe where I've sung leading roles for theatres like Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The Bolshoi Theatre, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Theater Basel, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and Oper Frankfurt, and where I've also sung with leading symphonic orchestras in Milan, Munich, Moscow and Hamburg, among others. I'm a lirico-spinto soprano, which means that my repertoire is mostly stuff in the direction of Butterfly, Salome and assorted Wagner, but I actually began my career as a high lyric coloratura (Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta, Oscar) and just let my instrument take me where it wanted to go! This means that, especially when dealing with treatment of the soprano voice, I've been through many different styles of production and am familiar with lots of the tricks that are necessary for navigating different areas of the instrument.
I've had most of my experience as a teacher with full-time oversight of a person's studies in the age range of about 18 to 24, but (as is fairly typical in-industry) my experience with giving one-off lessons extends to helping out with seasoned professionals who just want an extra ear in the room. I'm especially passionate regarding the topic of conservatory admissions: I partially subsidized my studies at CIM by proctoring/video recording/traffic controlling incoming auditions, and I have a particular love of helping high schoolers auditioning for a first Bachelor degree to put their best foot forward.
I'm all about identifying your tonal ideal for a role, piece, phrase, or even individual note and helping to codify the vocabulary that will best help you consistently make the sound and gesture that you want to make. It's all about adjusting terminology to meet an individual student's needs-- "high placement" might mean an entirely different thing to one person than to another, and the technical advice that best helps one person may severely detriment another. I try to be available as often as possible between lessons to listen to a recording you may have made during a practise session, answer questions, or just assure you that you're not going crazy; it's just allergies. Being a singer is rough!
I like to begin every lesson with about 10 to 15 minutes of vocalising, which doesn't just serve the purpose of "warming up" but also informs technical skills that can be transferred to repertoire. While working through rep, I like to tailor vocalises to benefit the specific challenges inherent to the rep you're working on. Post-vocalising, you're welcome to sing a capella if that makes you comfortable, to use a backing track, or to bring you own pianist on your end. Do what makes most sense!
Of course, though, the goal of art is communication. I'm fluent in English and German, so I do love working with texts in these languages with interpretation in mind, and my Italian might only be taxi and restaurant proficient but I sing and deal with the language well, as I do in French. I'm singing my first big Czech role this year, too, so I have great connects to outside coaches that I can have sit in if you ever need to approach Slavic repertoire. I also LOVE the theatrical side of opera and song, and love to help you parce the best path in your own psychology that will make your interpretations meaningful, convincing, and as uniquely "you" as your own fingerprints!
Since I'm a full-time performer, it does need to be said that lesson times need to be scheduled somewhat flexibly from week to week-- I know where gaps in my schedule fall, but if they don't coincide with what works best for you, that's absolutely something that can be worked around with a tiny bit of patience.
Master of Music, The Juilliard School 2013
Bachelor of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music 2010
While you're welcome to purchase Vaccai, Concone, Marchesi or their like, after a few lessons I prefer to write all exercises down for you, so you won't really need more than the repertoire that you'd like to start right away. A good place for younger students to begin is with the Arie Antiche or with a book of Mozart/Schubert/Schumann/Brahms lieder, or with the "First Book of (insert voice type here) Solos" anthologies. But it's even more important, I find, for younger singers to study things that they love-- so I'm open to your suggestions!