Dr Shannon Coates – Speaker | Educator | Maximizer. Pilfering the Ivory Tower on behalf of Independent Voice Teachers since 2010

I am a voice teacher, speaker, and educator who holds three vocal performance degrees from the University of Toronto, culminating in a Doctorate of Musical Arts specializing in Voice Pedagogy. Following nearly two decades of owning and operating a successful independent voice studio in dual urban and suburban demographics (where I taught all the singers you find in every voice studio from the six-year old who practices more than the rest of the studio combined, to the chorister who has been singing The Messiah from memory since before you were born, to the teenager who is finding new purpose in life through music, to the singer-songwriter whose poetry makes you weep, to the pro and pro-track performers who want a technique refresh), in 2019, I shifted my focus to working exclusively with voice teachers and to developing training and educational resources specifically for independent teachers.

Along with my mentoring role, I regularly contribute to the larger voice teaching community through service to voice associations (most recently as the Past-President of NATS Ontario), presentations at international conferences, and by speaking to associations and teacher groups throughout the world. I enjoy a significant social media presence which I use to curate and distribute information related to voice pedagogy, and to promote and discuss the subjects I am especially passionate about: making teaching best-practices explicit and applicable in the independent voice studio and creating inclusive voice studios.

In September, 2022, I will launch The VoicePed UnDegree; an online training course designed specifically for independent voice teachers to be able to complete from the comfort of their own homes/studios/offices (I’m not judging) while not having to stop teaching in order to get better at, well, teaching.

More information can be found on my website:

 www.drshannoncoates.com.