Songwriting Lessons in Chicago
Bring Your Inner Musical Voice to Life
Every great song starts with a single idea. Whether you’re a poet looking to add melody or a musician ready to structure your first composition, we provide the tools to bring your creative vision to reality through flexible in-person or online lessons.
FROM IDEA TO REALITY
Our lessons are designed to help you capture musical ideas and transform them into polished, finished works. We bridge the gap between inspiration and technical skill, helping you understand the “why” behind your favorite songs so you can confidently create your own. We foster a supportive, community-driven environment where your unique artistic voice is celebrated and nurtured at every stage of the creative process.
MEET OUR FACULTY
Professional Skills. Personal Support.
Our instructors are active performers and award-winning composers on Chicago’s most prestigious stages. They bring professional industry standards to the studio while remaining educators at heart, providing the guidance and warmth you need to find your unique sound in a supportive, in-person or online environment.
Voice Lessons
Pop, musical theater, commercial music, classical voice and songwriting
LJ BULLEN is a Jeff Award winning musical theatre performer currently based in Chicago. They grew up performing and have a BFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College, and spent several years in LA working professionally in the recording industry. They also have experience and training in classical voice, musical theatre, commercial music (pop/contemporary/folk), and songwriting. Their debut EP ‘I’m for You’ is available on all music streaming platforms, and they have another full album in the works.
Since returning from LA some of LJ’s favorite roles have included Twinkle the Elf in Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas Wish (World Premiere), Kate in Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party (Jeff Winner: Best Supporting Performer in a Musical / Jeff Nominee: Best Ensemble Performance), Fay Apple in Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle, Adult Alison in Fun Home, Becca in Rabbit Hole, and is thrilled to be playing the upcoming role of the Emcee in Cabaret in fall of 2026.
LJ believes in a practical approach to singing and teaching voice; Exploring both proper physical techniques and vocal health, as well as the emotional color and acting beats within a song, and how they can be used to inform your interpretation/performance of the piece. Above all they believe singing should be both fun and enjoyable, technique giving the skill and foundation to explore emotion and creativity.
Hailing from West Des Moines, Iowa, AVIANA GEDLER brings her Midwest charm and personal voice to Chicago in today’s alternative music industry. Trained classically from a young age, Aviana combines musical exploration with a deep compassion for life, crafting a genre-defying sound that is uniquely her own. She is a prolific songwriter and arranger, and brings her expertise on the piano and viola to her original music.
Aviana is an accomplished jazz vocalist, having been awarded 1st place in the Ravenscroft Jazz Prize and 2nd place in the Ella Fitzgerald International Jazz Vocal Competition. She developed her passion for versatility as a musician at the School for Music Vocations in Creston, Iowa, where she picked up arranging, composing, electric bass, drums, and guitar, and soon after earned her Bachelor’s Degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, studying Jazz Performance under renowned musicians such as Dominique Eade, Ran Blake, and Jason Moran. While studying there, she performed at Boston’s finest jazz clubs such as the Regattabar, the Mad Monkfish, and Wally’s Jazz Cafe. In Chicago, she has performed at esteemed clubs such as the Jazz Showcase and Clara, and also co-founded her band, April State.
Alongside performing, Aviana’s true passion for music is brought out through teaching music. Through some of Chicago’s most highly esteemed non-profit organizations such as Ravinia Festival Association and Upbeat Music & Arts, she touches the lives of today’s youth by providing them the opportunity for music to enrich and transform their lives the way it has for her.
Aviana teaches beginning – intermediate voice and piano lessons, improvisation, theory, composition and songwriting. Besides music, Aviana enjoys reading, dancing, learning languages, and meeting new people
Beginning – Intermediate
Voice Lessons
Beginning – Late Intermediate
Piano Lessons
Jazz specialist
Theory, Composition, Songwriting, Improvisation
Piano and Voice Lessons
Composition
Theory and Aural Skills
As an educator, MATTHEW RECIO serves as adjunct faculty of Musical Skills for DePaul University and the Chicago School for the Arts and has previously served on faculty as theory instructor at Indiana University and composition faculty at the Luzerne Music Center. As a guest artist and lecturer he has been invited to work at Oberlin Conservatory, Cleveland State, Ithaca College and Stony Brook University.
Recio recently finished his post as the Vanguard emerging composer with Chicago Opera Theater, developing operas with Royce Vavrek and Stephanie Fleischmann. This past year he was asked to return as an aperture resident artist with West Edge Opera to further develop his new opera, “L’autre Moi: The Other Me”.Current projects include a commission from Chicago Fringe Opera for the Decameron Opera Coalition, a feature on American soprano, Laura Stricking’s CD “40×40”, a commission for LYNX amplify series, and a commission for Ryan Strand’s Letters for Jackie project, and a commission from the Ithaca College Treble Choir. Recent past projects include a commission for Chicago based professional choir, Stare at the Sun’s Fall concert “Returning”, and a commission for Queer In(n) dedicated to Chicago elder trans icon, Mama Gloria, featuring trans singer, Jalissa Spell, Chicago Fringe Opera’s City of Works series, Fourth Coast Ensemble’s SongSlam and wrote an interactive choral cantata “The Hollow” for Stare at the Sun. He was a winner of the IU Georgina Joshi Vocal Composition prize, the American Prize in choral writing and the first selected commissioned artist for the Cincinnati Song Initiative.
Recio has worked with organizations such as BMP, New Voices Opera Company, Cincinnati Camerata, NOTUS and The Crossing. He was a composer fellow at VIPA, IMANI Festival, Atlantic music festival, The Crossing and Norfolk Chamber Series. He studied voice and piano during his academic training, studying voice under Peter Volpe and actively performs as a choral singer today in the Chicago area.
