Teaching voice for four decades — and still developing, learning, growing

How I got here

I fell in love with the voice early — and that love has only deepened over time. The voice is endlessly fascinating to me. How it works. Why it works. What happens when everything aligns and a singer or speaker finds that moment of freedom and flow.

That fascination has taken me down many paths. I spent nearly 30 years conducting choirs in public schools. I was an elementary school teacher for five years — and yes, I taught my students music too, because that's just who I am. I've been teaching voice privately for decades, first alongside my school career, then in my first dedicated studio in Puyallup (2014–2018), and now at Ted's Voice Academy in Lacey, which I opened in 2023. Along the way, my path has been shaped by dozens and dozens of wonderful voice teachers, choral directors, music educators, and vocal and performance coaches — each a valuable influence in developing my own love and understanding of the voice and how to guide it.

As a performer, I've competed and won awards in multiple voice classifications — tenor, baritone, and bass. That range of experience taught me something I come back to often: good singing is good singing — the rest is just notes.

When someone finds their authentic voice — they experience a sense of freedom, joy, and fulfillment that changes everything.

Through all of it, one thing has stayed constant: my passion for helping people communicate from a place of self-alignment and self-understanding. When that happens — when someone finds their authentic voice — they experience a sense of freedom, joy, and fulfillment that changes everything. That's what I live for.