2023 International Conference

Megan Durham (she/her), serves on the voice faculty at the University of Louisville and works as a singing voice specialist. Incorporating trauma-informed care into her pedagogy, she is a facilitator of YogaVoice®, LifeForce Yoga®, Transcending Sexual Trauma Through Yoga, and Movement For Trauma (Jane Clapp). Megan serves as the Education Director the Voice and Trauma Research and Connection Group, co-founded by Dr. Elisa Monti and Heleen Grooten. Megan holds a Master of Music degree in voice pedagogy and performance from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Richmond. She completed her certification in singing voice habilitation with Dr. Karen Wicklund at the Chicago Center for Professional Voice.

How to Act a Song: A system to enhance vocal technique

Dr. Marc Reynolds, a native of Los Angeles, is currently Director of Opera Studies at Texas State University. He received his undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University, Master of Music degree with an emphasis in Opera Directing from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with an emphasis in Opera Directing at The University of Texas at Austin.

As a Stage Director Marc Reynolds has enjoyed success in directing including La Boheme and Falstaff (with La Music Lirica), The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (Austin Opera), Carmen, Falstaff, Die Fledermaus, and The Merry Widow (Utah Lyric Opera), The Mikado, The Old Maid and the Thief, La Cenerentola, The Magic Flute, and Amahl And The Night Visitors (Sparkling City Light Opera), La Serva Padrona (La Follia Austin Baroque), as well as La Curandera, Albert Herring, and Cosi Fan Tutte (Butler Opera Center). His work has received awards, nominations, and acclaim from the press and critics. 

As an educator Dr. Reynolds has taught for Westminster College, Utah Valley University, The University of Texas at Austin, The Butler Opera Center Young Artist Program, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Sparkling City Light Opera’s Vocal Arts Workshop, Utah Vocal Arts Academy Workshop, the Cornish-Amerian Song Institute, and most recently in Italy with La Musica Lirica. He has also enjoyed giving master classes and workshops across the United States and abroad.

Marc has enjoyed many administrative positions including a position as Associate Administrative Director and Resident Stage Director for Utah Lyric Opera and as a founding associate director for The University of Texas at Austin’s Butler Opera Center Young Artist Program. 

He also maintains a private voice, acting, executive coaching, and directing studio. His primary focus is on helping performers integrate the various skills involved in their performance into a synergistic system for generating genuine and authentic performances.

https://foundyourvoice.com/

John Henny has been a leading voice teacher for over 25 years. He has taught thousands of singers, including Grammy winners and top background and session singers. John’s students have appeared on Broadway and in major touring companies. John has also trained hundreds of voice teachers, including many industry leaders. John hosts the popular podcast, The Intelligent Vocalist and his YouTube channel has over 100,000 subscribers. His books, including Beginning Singing, are Amazon bestsellers.   John has lectured at USC, The Paul McCartney Liverpool Institute, and the Learning Annex.  John is known for making complex concepts simple and easy to understand and is a leader in creating online programs for singers and voice teachers. 

Fernando Zimmermann is a professional singer, singing teacher, voice coach, and co-founder of the Full Voice® Institute, a company in which he has already trained more than 3200 singing teachers and led a team of more than 50 licensed voice coaches worldwide.

He is a specialist in Vocal Pedagogy at Voice Study Centre + University of Wales Trinity Saint David, where he is also concluding his master’s. He also holds a specialization degree in Neuroeducation.

As a singing teacher, he has trained many participants of The Voice Brazil, The Voice Kids, renowned recording artists, and singers ranging from beginners to advanced levels over the years.

As a singer, he has vast experience singing different music genres, from rock’n roll to music theatre. He has already sung in concerts in front of one of the most prominent orchestras in Brazil – Camerata Florianópolis – as well as toured around the country.

Both as a singer and as a singing teacher, he specialized in several vocal distortions, vocal effects widely used in styles like rock, and heavy metal, but also used in genres ranging from blues to musical theatre.

John Garvey is currently a Human Resources professional, working as a Sr. Consultant in the Enterprise Diversity & Inclusion department of Travelers Insurance with a passion for the performing arts and is based in Hartford, CT. He began singing in musicals during middle school growing up in Robbinsville, New Jersey and continued performing in high school and throughout his community, adding experience in the Central New Jersey regional choir, as well as a community led Christian choir. He graduated from Villanova University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Masters degree in Human Resource Management. He continued performing in extracurriculars during college and appeared in “Leaving Brooklyn” directed by Bill Russel at the Queens Theatre in 2018.

John’s life as a person with Cerebral Palsy has been central to his experiences as a performer and professional.  His disability has presented challenges in many different areas, from controlling his singing voice to finding suitable acting work. It has also fueled his passion for inclusion and accessibility in all areas of life. He is incredibly grateful to Sam Johnson and to IVTOM for giving him an opportunity to blend his passions for performing and disability inclusion by speaking about his unconventional experiences as a singer. 

Mary Saunders Barton is a Penn State Professor Emeritus, currently residing in New York city where she maintains a private studio for professional musical theatre performers. She is also an adjunct professor in the

Musical Theatre Program at Montclair State University. Her own performing career spanned twenty years and included Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, television, and film credits.

While at Penn State, Mary served as head of voice instruction for the BFA in musical theatre. She also created an MFA in Voice Pedagogy for Musical Theatre with colleague Norman Spivey to meet the growing demand for voice teachers who specialize in vernacular techniques. In this and recent seasons her students have been seen on Broadway in Wicked, The Music Man, Shucked, Merrily We Roll Along, The Book of Mormon, Funny Girl, Beetlejuice, Beautiful, Bandstand, Moulin Rouge, and Ain’t Too proud, among others, in addition to many national tours and regional productions. Graduates of the Pedagogy MFA have gone on to teaching positions at universities in New York, Massachusetts, Nevada, Virginia, the Netherlands, and Greece, and contribute to the profession in performance, writing, and research.

She is frequently invited to present master classes and workshops at universities and voice conferences in the US and abroad. She gave the keynote musical theatre presentation at the 2013 International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) in Brisbane, Australia. She has served twice as a master teacher for the NATS Intern Program.

Mary has produced two video tutorials, Bel Canto Can Belto: Teaching Women to Sing Musical Theatre, and What About the Boys? The book “Cross Training in the Voice Studio: A Balancing Act” (2018 Plural Publishing) was the result of her collaboration with Norman Spivey. She contributed Chapter 6 to the NATS publication “So You Want to Sing CCM,” (ed Matthew Hoch) and is a contributing author in “The Vocal Athlete” by Wendy LeBorgne and Marci Rosenberg, the 2^nd edition of “A Spectrum of Voices” by Elizabeth Blades, and “Training Contemporary Commercial Singers,” by Elizabeth Benson, to name a few.

Mary is the 2018 recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute at

Shenandoah University.

She is chair of the American Academy of Teachers of Singing.

Anna Siciliano, M.A., CCC/SLP, received her B.S. from Utah State University, and her M.A. in Speech Pathology from University of Houston (Texas). She completed postgraduate training at Baylor College of Medicine at The Texas Voice Center.  Anna was trained by Laryngologist Dr. Dick Stasney and was one of the first Speech Pathologists to be trained in rigid and flexible laryngoscopy. Anna was also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston where she taught the graduate level course on Voice Disorders.  In 1997, Anna returned to Utah and was hired by Dr. Marshall E. Smith to work at The University of Utah’s Voice Disorders Clinic. In 2004, Dr. Smith and Anna opened Intermountain Voice and Swallowing Center at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.  She held the position of Program Coordinator for 13 years.  Anna also served on the planning committee for the National Center for Voice and Speech and is a member of IVTOM’s medical advisory board. She serves as an externship supervisor for Speech Pathology graduate students from Utah State University, The University of Utah and BYU.

As the recipient of the Utah Speech and Hearing Association (USHA) Outstanding Achievement Award in 2009, Anna lectures widely on issues relating to swallowing and singing. She is also certified in the Lee Silverman LOUD Voice Treatment program for those with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders. For patients with severe swallowing disorders, Anna is certified in the use of NMES Vital Stim.

MaryAnnKehler is best known for her work as a voice teacher; she is also a theatre director, audition coach, and best-selling author. Her students include musical theatre professionals; pop recording artists; lead singers for rock, country, and bluegrass bands; club musicians; singer/songwriters; classical choral soloists, worship leaders, and voice teachers.  She is skilled at voice habilitation and is a “go-to” for keeping professional voices working.  Mary Ann is proud to serve as President of International Voice Teachers of Mix and is an IVTOM Mentor Teacher.  She happily travels the world, training voice teachers and helping singers, and has presented in many voice conferences and theatre education events.  She calls Denver, Colorado, USA home.

Dean Kaelin has been teaching voice for 40 years and has taught over 100,000 lessons. He has taught and conducted workshops throughout the world. He is the founder of Ivtom (The International Voice teachers of Mix) and served as President from 2009-2016. He is currently the Education Advisor for Ivtom as well as a Mentor Teacher. He trained with Seth Riggs and worked as his personal accompanist. He was a Level 5 Instructor in the Speech Level Singing Organization and served as the Point IMT with responsibility for worldwide education advancement of the technique. He has been the voice coach for Star Search Winners, American Idol finalists and his students have performed on Broadway, signed major record deals and have performed at every major Theme Park in the U.S. He has a degree in Jazz Composition from the University of Utah and a Masters Degree from Brigham Young University. He was an Associate Professor of Music at Westminster College in Salt Lake City for 7 years.