PRIVATE VOICE TEACHERS

Alex Burch is a passionate and experienced vocal and strings instructor for musicians of all ages and abilities. Her musical journey began at age five, culminating in degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Dr. Bob Duke and Dr. Darlene Wiley. She’s had the opportunity to study opera with both The UT Butler Opera School and Austin Opera since 2016.


With a thriving private studio and an active performance schedule, Alex currently works in the Austin and Eanes Independent School Districts and runs the Austin String Intensive. Ms. Burch is committed to equipping students with a well-rounded musical education so that vocalists are empowered to create beautiful, expressive sounds with effortless technique. In her free time, she is a connoisseur of cats, yoga, and woodworking.

​Mark Istratie - Romanian American Tenor, Mark Istratie attended Madonna University where he studied Vocal Performance. Opera credits include Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), and Count Barigoule (Cendrillon) with Madonna Lyric Theater and Peter Quint (Turn of the Screw) with Opera MODO. Mark has performed in the Michigan Opera Theatre Chorus in the productions of Faust, Macbeth, Carmen, The Passenger (Mieczysław Weinberg), Cyrano, Don Giovanni, Girl of the Golden West, and Silent Night.


As a concert performer, Mark has been heard with Detroit-based Audivi, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theatre Outreach program and Opera San Antonio. Until relocating to Austin, Texas Mark served as a staff singer at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Most recently, Mark performs in several choral ensembles including Conspirare, San Antonio Chamber Choir, Ensemble VIII, Texas Bach Festival, Austin Cantorum, Un/Heard, Conspirare Symphonic Choir, and the Conspirare Artists Citizens Chorale Collective.


Mark is an artist on the 2024 Grammy®-nominated recording for Best Choral Performance: Conspirare’s House of Belonging. In the summer of 2024, Mark presented the works of British composer, Ivor Gurney in recital along with Mezzo-Soprano Lauren McAllister.
 

Kylie Jensen attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance and a minor in French. During her time there, she was involved with many ensembles in the program, and was the music director of co-ed acapella group The Ransom Notes. Among her academic experiences was studying with the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Angers, France. There, Kylie studied opera, the French language, and performed a lead opera role and recitals.


Kylie has performed with many professional choral ensembles such St. Matthew’s Schola, Austin Baroque Orchestra, and Texas Bach Festival. Currently, Kylie is a resident Choral Scholar at Shepherd of the Hills Christian Church, and is on the administrative team for Austin Cantorum, a semi-professional vocal ensemble.


As a voice teacher, Kylie’s goal is to foster a true love of music and singing, and build the technique to support each student’s musical ambitions. Music has brought her so much joy in life, and it’s thrilling to see that same passion and excitement in her students.

John Proft is a voice teacher and singer 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 UNT, where he got his Bachelors of Music Education in 2006.


After graduating, 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 with the Boston Early Music Festival in 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 he 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