101 | Balancing Performing and Teaching: Interview with Jennifer Cooper

Voice teachers wear many hats. Many of us are ‘Teaching Artists’, trying to balance our performance schedules with the responsibilities of running our teaching studios. Jennifer Cooper shares her passion for both performing and teaching and how she maintains her busy schedule mindfully. Bonus conversation: Jennifer performs an extremely wide variety of music and discusses how she transitioned from a classical background into contemporary genres.

Warm-Up of the Week: Jennifer shares exercises for helping singers with registration.

My Music Staff Minute: Celebrating your studio successes!

About our guest:

President/CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. and professional vocalist, Jennifer Cooper, offers a unique, deeply varied repertoire of entertainment, blurring the boundaries of genres and styles. Before taking the stage as a jazz, blues and pop songstress with her current band GrooveSpan, Cooper lit up the musical theater stage with boundless energy and intense focus, then later – after earning a BA in Music at University of Maryland and MM in Vocal Performance at Arizona State University School of Music – sustained a successful, professional opera career yielding rave reviews for more than thirty principle roles and various concert appearances throughout Europe, Canada and the U.S. On her journey, she earned more than $55,000 in vocal competition awards which she invested directly back into honing her craft, and covering industry expenses.

Cooper has created, produced and starred in several original music productions, including her one-woman, autobiographical musical cabaret, “Go-DIVA! ~ of Song, Silence & the Abuse of Chocolate” (written/directed by LB Hamilton), “Velvet Nights” (international-style cabaret), and “Only Yesterday” (Carpenters tribute). Her popular showcase series, “Opera Night” and “Broadway Night” consistently played to sold-out audiences in the southern Maryland region while her highly acclaimed “Sentimental Journey” (WWII era tribute) presentation continues to tour the east coast. Her four-year stint as the sole voice instructor at EMU (Harrisonburg, VA) provided opportunities for new course development – Musical Theater and Opera Scenes classes – plus positions as Music Director and Maestra for major musical productions and choral ensembles. She has taught voice lessons and led master classes amid her career since ~1997, is the sole owner and operator of the Cooper Voice Studio (est. ~2011), serves on the voice faculty at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and thrives on the intricate amalgamation of voice science/pedagogy and authentic artistry. Her passion to communicate through story and song – in opera, musical theater, and pop – infuses every aspect of her performance and teaching career.

You can connect with Jennifer here:

Performance Artist: www.jennifercoopervoice.com
Cooper Voice Studio: www.coopervoicestudio.mymusicstaff.com
GrooveSpan: www.groovespan.com
Boutique Broadway Symposium: www.coopervoicestudio-symposiums.com
Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc.: www.go-diva.webs.com
Twitter: GoDivaPro