PRIVATE VOICE TEACHERS

A New Jersey native, Abbey lives has performed in both opera and recital in New York City, San Francisco, Austin, Honolulu, New Jersey, Austria and Italy. Abbey has appeared with the Hawaii Opera Theatre, the New Jersey Opera Theater, the Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria, the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Count Basie Center for the Arts, the Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu and the Teatro della Muse in Ancona, Italy.

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Abbey currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice at Concordia University and had previously served as Adjunct Voice faculty at New York University. She holds both a BM and MM from New York University and her primary teachers have included Carolann Page, W. Stephen Smith and Camille Gifford.

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At Concordia Abbey has performed in recital and served as a soloist in Bach's Magnificat, Faure's Requiem, and Mozart's Vespers Solennes de Confessore, K. 339 with the University Choir and Concordia Singers. She is the Director and Coordinator of the Concordia Young Voices Competition, and as a clinician, she has served on the panel for the Texas Music Teachers Association All-State Competition. She is also a teacher and coordinator with Last Chance Choir Camp; A preparatory camp for the All State Choir process.

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As a teacher Abbey believes that each voice has its own distinctive beauty. It is only by shedding our emotional and technical masks that we can discover our vocal identity and truly express ourselves to an audience. A vulnerable singer is one of the most powerful communicators, and our technique is only meant to serve what it is that we truly want to say.

 

In addition, Abbey maintains a private voice studio at her home in Round Rock where she enjoys spending time with her husband, son, daughter, and rescue dog Frankie.

John Proft is a voice teacher committed to the transforming power of music education. He came to teaching after a decade of professional singing took him around the country to perform with choirs and chamber ensembles in Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Miami, Tucson, and Santa Fe. He began singing professionally while in undergrad at the University of North Texas with the Dallas Bach Society and Orpheus Chamber Singers.

 

After receiving his Bachelors of Music from UNT, John was based for four years in Boston. During this time, he began traveling to perform with ensembles like Austin’s Grammy award-winning Conspirare, Miami’s Grammy-nominated Seraphic Fire, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. As a soloist, he has performed with the Harvard Collegium Musicum and in Boston Early Music Festival’s 2010 opera, Dido and Aeneas. He has worked with world-renowned conductors Harry Christophers, Ton Koopman, and Craig Hella Johnson, and with Evan Rogister and Stephen Wadsworth at the Santa Fe Opera. He has recorded with the labels Harmonia Mundi, CORO, and Clarion, among others. 

 

In 2013, John received his Masters of Music in Choral Conducting from Southern Methodist University, where he was the founding conductor of SMU’s select women’s ensemble, Diva Dolce. 

 

In 2015 John received his 200-hr Yoga Teacher certification with an emphasis on Yoga Therapy and trauma-informed yoga from the Yoga Seed Collective in Sacramento, California. He enjoys incorporating these holistic practices with his classical training in his private lessons.