Who is Lindsay Kurtze?
I am extremely passionate about music and drama - especially when they come together as Musical Theatre. I enjoy sharing my passion with my students and I love teaching anyone who has an interest in either of these areas.
I have had an interest in singing for many years; I started serious vocal work at age 12 and continued through high school graduation. When the time came to focus more seriously on my music, I chose the Theatre Arts diploma from Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton Alberta. This two-year intensive program exposed me to many different acting and musical theatre techniques which are a part of my teaching repertoire.
My second degree from the University of Calgary is a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama, with a minor in music. In this program I was able to focus on directing, Musical Theatre history and vocal pedagogy with Donald Bell.
It was at this time that I started teaching and have been doing it ever since. I was with Irene Besse's Academy of Music until she closed her doors in 2011. I am now in my second year of having my own studio.
My love of the stage has led me to perform in over 20 productions and start my own theatre company. Some of my credits include Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Dolly in Annie Get your Gun, Leading Player in Pippin and Sister Mary Hubert in Nunsense.
My theatre company, The Alberta Musical Theatre Society had it's premiere production, I Love you, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Where is your singing lesson?
I am not taking students at this time.
How Much/How Long is your singing lesson?
$20 per 30 min per week (for students who are 10 years of age and under)
$30 per 45 min per week (for students who are interested in singing just as a hobby
$40 per 60 min per week (for students who are preparing for an audition, career in singing or just very serious about singing as their hobby)
I also do occasional lessons for those that do not have enough time/funds to have lessons on a weekly basis. These NEED to be 1 hour ($40) otherwise nothing will ever get accomplished.
What is involved in your singing lesson?
Singing is a physical activity, akin to dancing in my opinion...
As singers we need to learn how our instrument works from a physiological stand point... and then from there we need to personalize it from kinesthetic point of view and an auditory point of view, to help us judge whether we are using it "properly" - ie so that we do not injure it and that we are able to sing in the style we are asked..
Like dance there are many styles of song...and as singers we would ideally like to be able to sing what we want to...and/or what is asked of us...the more styles we can sing the more chance we have of getting work...
So in this technical world - we use warm-ups and exercises to discover how our voice works...again very akin to the "bar" work in ballet
After the "technical side" we also need to learn how to communicate the music...after all this is the reason we are singing in the first place...we want to communicate to our audience what the music is about...REALLY the only reason for the technical side is so that we can communicate the song properly and not have fears of our voice getting in the way of us communicate the song...
We always spend half our lesson working on a song...I always try and start out with a song that my student is naturally able to sing so we have little "technical work" to do and can spend time disucssing the communication aspect of singing
The last thing I would like to point out is that all of this takes time...although we all have the ability to sing, it doesn't mean that all the things discussed above come naturally...again very akin to dance...we all have 2 legs....but we need some training to pop and lock as they do in Hip Hop or do a pirouette as they do in Ballet.
