Author: Matt Edwards

Matt Edwards is one of the leading voice teachers for commercial and musical theatre styles in the United States. He is currently associate professor of voice and director of musical theatre at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University; artistic director of the Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute; secretary of the Musical Theatre Educator’s Alliance and past secretary of the Pan-American Vocology Association. Edwards’ vocal interests encompass many styles. He has performed numerous roles in plays, musicals and operas with companies including Tri-Cities Opera, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, New Jersey Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival, Bay View Music Festival, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Pops, Hudson Valley Symphony, the Miami Valley Symphony, Cincinnati Opera Outreach, Lyric Opera Cleveland Outreach, Theatre Lab, KNOW Theatre, and many others. He has also received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Dayton Opera Guild Competition, The National Association of Teachers of Singing, Southern-Tier Opportunity Coalition, the Voice Foundation and the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. Former and current students have performed on “American Idol,” Broadway, off-Broadway, national and international tours, national television, cruise ships, theme parks, bands touring throughout the world, and as members of the Ten Tenors, the Singing Sergeants, The Broadway Tenors, and the USO Show Troupe. He has written articles for the Journal of Singing, Journal of Voice, VoicePrints, American Music Teacher, The Voice, Southern Theatre, Vocology in Practice, and has been a vocal coach in residence for Voice Council magazine. He has contributed to books including “A Dictionary for the Modern Singer” by Dr. Matthew Hoch, “Vocal Athlete” by Dr. Wendy LeBorgne and Marci Rosenberg, The “Manual of Singing Voice Rehabilitation” by Leda Scearce,“Training Contemporary Commercial Singers” by Dr. Elizabeth Benson, “Get the Callback, 2nd edition” by Jonathan Flom, and the CCM, Sacred Music, Gospel, Folk Music, A Cappella, and Country editions of the “So You Want to Sing” book series. His book “So You Want to Sing Rock ‘N’ Roll?” is published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishing. It was called “an authoritative text on rock ‘n’ roll singing” by Classical Singer magazine, and is the best seller in the “So You Want to Sing” series. In high demand for his presentations and masterclasses on commercial and musical theatre voice, he has presented at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Conference, NATS Summer Workshop, Voice Foundation Annual Symposium Care for the Professional Voice, Acoustical Society of America, Southeastern Theatre Conference, Virginia Theatre Association, Musical Theatre Educators Association, National Center for Voice and Speech, Pan-American Vocology Association, and Carolina Voices; NATS chapters in Toronto, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, Arizona, Oregon, and Texas; universities including Penn State, Florida State, Brigham Young, Wright State, Georgia Southern, Otterbein, Illinois Wesleyan, Ohio Northern, Missouri State, Mary-Hardin Baylor, Texas Women’s, DeSales, Hardin Simmons, Snow College, Westminster Choir College, Lawrence Conservatory, Bårdar Academy (Oslo, Norway), University of Alabama, University of Portland, University of Toronto, University of Northern Colorado, and many others.

How helicopter parents are ruining college students – The Washington Post

If you are a parent, please read this. I am also a parent, granted he’s only two and a half, but I get how important a child is. I love him more than words can describe. I will do anything for him, but I also know that part of doing good by him is teaching him to handle his own business.

I feel like my parents maintained the perfect balance. I’m from a working class home and my parents believed that if I were to be successful I needed to learn to take care of myself and not rely on others including them. If I had a problem with school officials, they told me how to handle the conversation and had me go try handling it on my own. Only if I was being treated disrespectfully or unjustly did they step in. It was nerve wracking but I did it and I think I earned respect for the way I handled things. I made mistakes along the way (like renting an apartment next door to the third worst project in Cleveland), but I survived and I learned from my mistakes. Because I learned to do my own legwork, I can successfully navigate anything. I know how to use resources around me to fill in the knowledge gaps I have. I know how to survive.

Do your kids a favor and teach them to take care of themselves. Let them fail and make mistakes (as long as there are not lifelong consequences). Coach them through how to have adult conversations, how to negotiate, how to respectfully talk with authority figures, and how to stand up for what they want and believe in an acceptable way. At some point you will not be around any longer and unfortunately none of us know when that day will be. It could be tomorrow. If you don’t teach your adult children to handle their lives on their own, what will happen if you’re not there?

How helicopter parents are ruining college students – The Washington Post.

~Matt