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Allison Cecilia Arends

Allison Cecilia Arends
Toronto, ON M4L 3P2

About The Teacher/Business

 Allison has taught private voice and theory for over fifteen years and takes a great deal of joy in imparting her musical knowledge to students from various musical backgrounds of all age groups. While she is most active in the classical music community, she is also experienced teaching students from other singing traditions, including jazz, musical theatre, popular music, and singer-songwriters. Since music has always been a source of great joy in her life, she aims to provide a fun, open, and encouraging environment in which her students can freely explore, experiment, and discover.

 

Skills she may seek to improve include pitch recognition and accuracy, breath control, vocal range, vocal timbre and production, musical style, posture and alignment, and diction. Allison’s strong background in languages enables her to teach her students to sing in English, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and French. Allison is also able to prepare her students for Royal Conservatory examinations, auditions, and performances.  Her students have been accepted into many prestigious programs, including the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Toronto, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the University of Western Ontario, Wilfred Laurier University, York University, the Randolph Academy for the Arts, the Etobicoke School for the Arts, Cardinal Carter School for the Arts, Claude Watson Secondary Arts Program, Acting Upstage, the Stratford summer training program, Cowtown Opera Summer Academy, Long Reach Opera Workshop, Ontario’s Provincial Choir, the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, and the Toronto Children’s Bach Choir.

 

Formerly a faculty member of St. Michael’s Choir School and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church’s Choir School, she is a registered member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS – International and Ontario chapters), Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ORMTA), and the Canadian Music Festival Adjudicators Association. She has conducted public masterclass and workshops for the music department at the University of Mississippi, Opera Atelier, the Saskatchewan Music Festival, the British Columbia Provincial Music Festival, the Regina Conservatory of Music, Ryerson Oakham House Choir, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, private voice studios in Regina and Hamilton, Grande Prairie’s Registered Music Teachers’ Association, and the Edna Manley Music College in Kingston, Jamaica. A member of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s College of Examiners, she has adjudicated on various occasions for the Saskatchewan Music Festival Association and the Regina Conservatory of Music; as well as for the British Columbia Provincial Music Festival and the Port Coquitlam Music Festival; the Scarborough Music Festival, Kips Music Festival in Markham, ORMTA – Etobicoke/Mississauga Chapter, Durham Showcase Festival, and Pembroke Music Festival in Ontario; the Carleton County Music Festival in New Brunswick; the Corner Brook Music Festival in Newfoundland; and the NATS Ontario auditions.

Allison completed a Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance at the University of Victoria, a Masters of Music in Opera at the University of Toronto, and an internship through the Calgary Opera Young Artists Program. Further studies have taken her to prestigious summer programs across Canada, as well as in England, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Israel. In addition to a strong background in languages through high school French Immersion studies (International Baccalaureate) and post-secondary German and Italian courses, she has studied Italian, German, French, Spanish, and Russian on an ongoing basis at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, the Alliance Française, the Goethe Institute, the Spanish Centre, and privately, respectively. Her various teachers and mentors have included W. Stephen Smith, Mary Morrison, Timothy Noble, Wendy Nielsen, Selena James, Alexandra Browning, Diana Woolrich, and Norma Bertsch.

For lesson inquiries or more information, please contact Allison directly. She would be delighted to hear from you. Lessons are available at her Toronto studio as well as on line.

Additional Information

Singing
Theory
Yes
No