Voice & Piano Teachers
Voice Lessons
Beginning – Intermediate
Piano Lessons
Erica is the founder of Cantabile School, and has been working as both a professional singer and private teacher since 2006. She has performed throughout the continental US and abroad, and holds degrees from The Eastman School of Music (B.M.- vocal performance and music education) and San Francisco Conservatory (M.M. – vocal performance). As the director of The Cantabile School of Voice And Piano, she has actively built an exceptional team of voice & piano teachers to best train our music students.
Erica’s teaching is deeply rooted in how the body moves naturally. Sound production should be released, coordinated and energized, never forced. By focusing on the intrinsic movements of the body, and shedding excess manipulation, students are able to increase their stamina, vocal range and innate musicality. Erica approaches each student as a true individual, and works with them holistically to help them achieve their desired goals in music making. Erica also offers lyric diction assistance, audition preparation and coaching as well as weekly lessons.
In addition to her work as a teacher and performer, Erica has held positions as a choral conductor, church music director and stage director. She has 20 years of experience as a pianist, and incorporates theory, ear training, sight reading and writing into all of her piano courses. Erica has been ranked as one of Chicago’s best voice teachers several years in a row by expertise.com. To learn more about Erica’s performance career, visit www.ericaschuller.com
Praised for her “crystalline soprano and admirable control and grace” (Opera Today), Rachel Blaustein, a 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Grand Finalist, is poised as a bright and up-and-coming artist, with a moving sensibility to drama and text. In the 23/24 season, she looks forward to performances as Gilda (Rigoletto) with Opera Delaware and Opera Baltimore. She appears in concert with Opera Omaha, in recital with Academy Art Museum, and as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. She returns to The Metropolitan Opera for her second workshop with the company, this time as Sarah Kavalier in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Mason Bates, composer; Gene Scheer, librettist). Rachel has also performed with Kentucky Opera, Florentine Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera NEO, Opera Santa Barbara, Chautauqua Opera and Fort Worth Opera.
A native of Olney, Maryland, Rachel holds a Bachelor’s degree in voice with a minor in drama from Hoftstra University and a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.
Voice Lessons
As an educator, Matthew 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.
Piano and Voice Lessons
Composition
Theory and Aural Skills
Voice Lessons
Beginning – Advanced
Piano Lessons
Jazz specialist
Dr. Kristin Sponcia is a Chicago- based pianist, vocalist, arranger, composer and educator. She specializes in unique arrangements of jazz standards and pop songs. Her career focus has been on teaching and performing American jazz and accompanying vocalists, including herself.
From her appearance with the Phil Mattson Singers at Carnegie Hall, to a five-month jazz duo residency in China, Kristin’s performance career has been rich and varied. In Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Key Largo, Nashville, and Urbana, IL, her freelance work as a pianist has included jazz festivals, background music, a Dixieland band, big bands, small jazz groups, church work, weddings, and an abundance of solo gigs. As a vocalist, Kristin sang with the Phil Mattson Singers for two years, started her own vocal jazz group in the Chicago area, and is called upon to accompany the best vocalists in her place of residence.
Kristin has considerable academic training and teaching experience. Over the last four years she held various teaching positions at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, Milwaukee High School of the Arts (of which she is an alumnus), and Cardinal Stritch University. She graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Performance (Voice) from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2018, where she held a coveted Teaching Assistantship.
Prior to starting her D.M.A., Kristin was a full-time faculty member for eight years at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, MN. Her robust skill set allowed her to teach a variety of courses and direct a jazz combo. She earned her Master of Music in Jazz Studies and Studio Music (Piano) from Roosevelt University in 2005, and her Bachelor of Arts (Jazz Studies Emphasis – Piano) in 2005 from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Presently, Kristin performs and teaches in the Chicago-land and Milwaukee areas. She continues to grow her musicianship with skills in production, songwriting, and music business. To stay current with her most recent performances, projects, and teaching residencies, please visit: https://kristinsponcia.com/
Voice Lessons
Beginning
Piano Lessons
Youth lessons
Students 12 – 18 years of age
Alexandra Burch is a Soprano located in Chicago, IL. She graduated from Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI with a dual Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Music Education. She is currently attending DePaul University in pursuit of her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance. Alexandra has been teaching piano and voice since 2018, both privately and with Reed Music Studios in Onalaska, WI. She has also worked as a recording artist for Choral Tracks LLC since 2017.
Alexandra is an experienced performer, with experience in both classical and musical theater genres. Roles of note include Monica in The Medium (Menotti), Laetitia
in The Old Maid and the Thief (Menotti), the Princess in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Ravel), the Witch in Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck), and Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein). She has been recognized for her solo work in both the classical and musical theater genres – winning first, second, and third place awards at the
NATS National Student Auditions, as well as two first place awards and a third place award at the Schubert Club Auditions. She is looking forward to performing as Lucinda in Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters at DePaul University this June.
With a background in both performance and education, Alexandra is uniquely suited to work with beginners and younger students under the age of 18. She focuses on providing a warm, encouraging environment for her students, allowing them to build fundamental musicianship skills at their own rate.
