Saturday mornings are going to get a lot busier at The Soo Theatre Project starting this Saturday, January 17! Would you like to connect your children with some of the finest music educators in town? Would you like to provide your children with piano or voice lessons, but are too busy during the week? Would you like to try out voice or piano in a class setting before you decide to embark on a journey into private lessons? These new offerings may be just the answer.
Experienced music educators Ronda McGreevy and Karen Hughes Beacom have created three wonderful solutions for you! They are: Children’s Vocal Ensemble, Group Piano Classes, and Piano Ensemble running for ten weeks on Saturday!
Ronda McGreevy, an instructor of voice and piano at The Soo Theatre Project for seven years, holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education from Western Michigan as well as a Master of Music Degree in School Library Media. Ms. McGreevy taught K-7 music classes and has led several vocal ensembles over her years as an educator.
She specializes in voice, choral music, piano, and guitar and teaches the Arts Exploration Camp at STARS every summer. She also has been a member of the Algoma Singers of Ontario and performed in productions of My Fair Lady, Oliver, and La Boheme. Ms. McGreevy arranges jazz for solo piano and composes music for piano choir. Her talents don’t stop here as she even has recently had a poem selected for publication!
Ms. McGreevy will lead the following classes.
Group Piano Classes. The students will learn to identify notes on the musical staff and piano, learn the language of music, and develop positive posture as this is an introduction to keyboard and the basics of piano performance.
Piano Ensemble. The students, with at least one year of instruction, will learn to play one part as others play their parts. Music, patriotic, pirate, cowboy, campfire, black keys, and Celtic songs, as well as songs by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin, is written and arranged specifically for this group by Ms. McGreevy employing the Orff technique.
Karen Hughes Beacom has been teaching for STARS since it opened in 2005. She offers lessons in voice and harp, with opera as her field of expertise. She also teaches First Steps in Music and serves as the Soo Theatre’s Artistic Director, planning and executing their annual performance season. Beacom holds a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Bachelor’s Degree in Harp Performance from DePauw University.
Beacom and McGreevy will be co-directing this new vocal ensemble!
Children’s Vocal Ensemble. The students will learn fun and challenging songs while learning music basics: breathing, diction, pitch, rhythm, harmony, and music reading. Children will start to learn the basics of part singing in an ensemble, as well as having the opportunity for some solo work in the later sessions.
So, call to connect your children with these expert musicians on Saturdays!
There’s always something for everyone at The Soo Theatre Project all year long. Visit: 534 Ashmun Street. Call: (906) 632-1930. Look: www.sootheatre.org.
