I am a musician and author living in Sarpsborg, Norway. Originally from Palo Alto, California, I grew up singing in choirs, playing piano and engaging with music as much as possible. I hold a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with an Outside Field in Counselling, magna cum laude from Ithaca College in New York and a Master of Science with Distinction in Performance Science from the Royal College of Music in London. My coursework for these degrees covered topics within music (vocal technique, performance practice, music theory and history, music technology), psychology (developmental psychology, performance psychology, forms of therapy), and music pedagogy.
I have a particular interest in making advanced study of music accessible to individuals with learning differences, which led me to write my own series of music theory lessons and worksheets, with the goal of making music theory fun and interesting for teenage students. The written lessons are heavily illustrated and use a conversational tone and humour to engage young learners. In order to ensure that the material I create is accessible to students with different learning needs and preferences, I have begun to supplement these lessons with a series of YouTube tutorials.
After completing my undergraduate studies, I spent three years working for iSing Silicon Valley, an internationally ranked girls choir based in Palo Alto, California. Throughout my time with iSing, I performed as a member of the top ensemble, which in 2018 was the Grand Prize winner of the 8th International Robert Schumann Choir Competition sponsored by Interkultur. In 2019, we had the honour of recording an album at Skywalker Studios in San Francisco. The album, Here I Stand, was released in 2020 on the Innova Recordings label.
In addition to my administrative and teaching responsibilities at iSing, I taught several students privately, offering theory and aural skills tutoring, performance coaching (helping students prepare for auditions, recitals, and solos), individual voice lessons, and basic piano lessons. I also worked with students to create high-quality audio and video recordings for auditions.
I have always enjoyed learning languages. I am proficient in French, German, and Norwegian. In university I discovered a passion and talent for diction (clear and accurate pronunciation of words in a given language). I have since coached diction for texts in French, German, Italian, Spanish Russian, Czech, Finnish, Norwegian, Estonian, and Latvian.
mattinakeith.com 