PRIVATE VOICE TEACHERS

​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

Paige Patrick is a San Antonio native who has dedicated her life to music education and great singing. She holds a BM in Vocal Music Education from Texas State University, where she performed with VocaLibre, Chorale, and Opera Workshop, and an MM in Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Paige served as Liberal Arts faculty at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville from 2010-2014, lecturing in Music Appreciation and teaching private studio voice lessons for majors and non-majors. In 2014 she relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she appeared with various companies, including the San Francisco Choral Society, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, Goat Hall Opera, Valhalla Opera, Verismo Opera, and Bayshore Lyric Opera. Also, during her years there, she served as soprano section lead for Chorus Eclectic, soprano/alto section lead/Interim Director for St. Stephen's Episcopal, and Vocal Coach to the Campolindo High School Choral Department (Moraga, CA), where she worked technique with all ensembles and coached principals for Titanic, Cinderella, and West Side Story.

Paige finally moved back to her Texas roots in summer 2024. When she’s not teaching, she is either working as Operations Manager at Oakland-based singing competition, James Toland Vocal Arts, or performing opera, choral music, jazz, and cabaret. Most recently she appeared with Gilbert and Sullivan Austin as Josephine in HMS Pinafore. Favorite roles include Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera), Blanche de la Force (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Leonora (Il Trovatore, La Forza del Destino), Rose Maurrant (Street Scene), and Katherina Cavalieri (Amadeus).

A lifelong learner, Paige believes in an interdisciplinary approach as a private teacher, working to encourage and empower students through singing, according to their musical and performance goals.