New England NATS
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Noel Smith
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New England NATS Region Governor

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​Noel Smith is a highly skilled singer, voice teacher, producer, pianist, and coach.  She has studios in both Boston and New York and many of her students have made it to Broadway:  Wicked (Elphaba), Mrs. Doubtfire (Christopher Hillard), Sing Street (Gary), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie) and tours: Rent (Maureen), Jesus Christ Superstar (Mary), Janis Joplin the Musical (Janis), Waitress (Jenna), Hadestown (Euridice US, Ensemble),  Sister Act, Elf, Baby Shark the Musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (swing). 

Noel works with professional child actors, and prepares high school students for entry into the top undergraduate and graduate musical theater and pop programs across the country.  She has taught at New England Conservatory’s Prep Program (guest teaching artist) and Walnut Hill School for the Arts (voice instructor and vocal coach). 

Noel is a vocal habilitator and collaborates with Speech Language Pathologists from Brigham and Women's Voice and Speech Lab, Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and Cornell University Hospital in NY.  She retrains injured singers and supports them in their careers.  She is a presenter on vocal health and healthy belting for the young singer, and was a featured presenter for the NATS National Convention in Las Vegas and The Voice Foundation.  
 
Noel's students are attending top tier schools such as:  U of Michigan, NYU/Tisch, NYU/Steinhart, Syracuse, Ithaca, Boston Conservatory, Emerson, Northwestern, Manhattan School of Music, Berklee, AMDA, U of Arts, Pace, and Elon.  She prepares singers for television shows The Voice and American Idol, where her students have moved on to the final audition rounds.  

Noel graduated summa cum laude from the Boston Conservatory in Voice Performance and Piano. She has further training in Estill Voice (Level 1, 2, 3); CCM training at Shenandoah Conservatory with Matt Edwards, Level 2& 3; Yoga For Singers; Feldenkrais; Teacher Training with Sheri Sanders of Rock the Audition and the Pedagogy Workshop at Boston Conservatory. 

As a Vocal Producer, Noel has produced many pop, Christian Contemporary, and choral recording projects.  She is the Past President of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), Boston Chapter.  She is a member of ASCAP and The Voice Foundation, NE Chapter.  Noel is a voting member of The Recording Academy (Grammy Awards).  
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Noel is a Grammy balloted recording artist and songwriter who has released two solo albums. She has had songs on the charts and licensed her own music for films and video games.  As a session singer, Noel's voice has been featured in numerous Hollywood films and internationally released video games. She works with iconic film composers Mark Isham, Brian Transeau (BT), Brian Tyler, Go Shina, Kiyoshi Yoshikowa, Kareem Roustom,  and Olivier Deriviere.  Most recently you can hear her vocals featured in Amazon Prime's "Electric Dreams" episode “AutoFac” where she was the featured singer on the episode and the ending credits.   Noel has recorded for the last two albums of internationally touring acapella group Naturally 7.  She is co-founder, president, producer and director at Vox Futura, New England's premier recording choir, bringing paid jobs to our professional singers. 

Julie Krugman
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New England NATS Region Auditions Chair

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Julie Krugman is a Mezzo-Soprano located in the Boston Metro-West area. She has performed professionally throughout the United States during her 25-year career.

Julie graduated with a degree in Vocal Performance from the Indiana University School of Music and went on to receive her Master of Vocal Performance from the Northwestern University School of Music in Evanston, Illinois. Upon completion of her degrees, Ms. Krugman performed around the Chicago area, most notably with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Chicago Lyric Opera Chorus.
 
Ms. Krugman served on the Board for the Boston Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) since 2014 where she served as both Auditions Chair & Vice-President. As Chair, she has led all aspects of Student Auditions; from registration, venue management, scheduling and web site creation to acquiring top talent to judge the finalist concerts.
 
Ms. Krugman has been featured soloist in many Oratorio performances, most notably as the Alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah and the Mezzo-Soprano soloist in both Rutter’s Feel The Spirit and Ray’s Gospel Mass. Since her move to the Boston area, Ms. Krugman has been a featured soloist and ensemble member with the Worcester Chorus and the Back Bay Chorale. She has been a featured soloist in the Worcester Schubertiad series and with the Worcester State University Chorale.
 
Ms. Krugman is new to the Voice faculty at Salve Regina University Music Department for the Fall of 2022. Julie also joined the Voice Faculty in the Department of Music at Anna Maria College In the fall of 2019 after 8 years as a member of the Visual and Performing Arts faculty at Worcester State University. She is also an Adjunct Faculty member teaching Opera Appreciation and the freshman seminar course, “Theater Rocks”, which teaches about the rock musical genre. She has also taught her rock musical class at Dean College in Franklin, MA.
 
Since opening the Julie Krugman Voice Studio in 2009, she has developed a business that has included over 30 middle and high school students. As a voice instructor, she has coached many of her students in successful auditions for Central District Choir, All-State and All-National Choir, NATS Regional & National Competitions, Classical Singer/Auditions Plus National Competitions, and roles in school and community musical productions. Her students have won National recognition through competitions in Musical Theatre and she has aided many others into top classical music and musical theatre performance Colleges and Universities. Julie has also been trained in teaching Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) and she has aided many students with proper mic technique, pop & jazz vocal styling and working in a recording studio.
 
Julie lives with her husband Josh and her sons Jack and Ben in Providence, RI.
juliekrugmanstudio.com



Eric Balboni
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New England NATS Technology & Social Media Chair

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​​Tenor Eric Balboni currently teaches in the Greater Worcester Area in Massachusetts. Eric is a Professor of Practice in Music and the Voice Department Coordinator at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts where he teaches voice lessons and vocal performance classes in addition to directing cabarets and opera scenes productions. At Anna Maria, Eric developed and implemented the Vocal Performance and Musical Theater minor programs. He holds a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance (Opera) and an Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from New York University. Eric’s teaching method is strongly based in an understanding of the science of the voice and its application to the individual voices in his studio. Eric helps his students to form good vocal habits and technique that will grow as their voices develop.

Students in his private studio have gone on to participate in District and All State festival choirs and have been accepted at music programs of major colleges and universities.

Eric enjoys teaching all styles of singing including classical, musical theater, and contemporary commercial music. He believes in a comprehensive approach to technique using various genres of repertoire to help his students grow as singers and musicians. In addition to his role in the New England NATS Region, he currently serves the board of the Massachusetts chapter Pan-American Vocology Association as Director of Programming.

Music directing credits include Drowsy Chaperone, Children of Eden, Firebringer, Little Women, High School Musical Jr. & Willy Wonka Jr. (Enter Stage Left Theater),  Avenue Q, The Wedding Singer, Beauty and the Beast & The Addams Family (Clark University), Little Shop of Horrors, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Firebringer & The Addams Family (Anna Maria College).

ericbalboni.com 

Jennifer Sgroe
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New England NATS Regional Development Liaison

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Praised for her “patrician ease and polished vocal refinement" by the Boston Music Intelligencer, soprano and voice teacher, Jennifer Sgroe began her career in dance and musical theater before moving into the operatic repertoire. She has performed across the US and at festivals in Finland, England and Austria in opera, recitals and on the concert stage, singing and recording in venues such as Jordan Hall, Mechanics Hall, Symphony Space, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Society for Ethical Culture and the United Nations. She specializes in contemporary American opera and repertoire of the Baroque and Classical eras and holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky, the Master of Music in Opera from The Boston Conservatory and the Doctorate of Musical Arts, also from the University of Kentucky and was an Apprentice Artist with Utah Opera following her graduate studies. She is a seasoned performer, teacher, administrative leader and producer, having put her talents to use in various sides of the performing arts and within academia. Her primary voice teachers include Everett McCorvey, Sara Goldstein and Arthur Levy. Dr. Sgroe has been teaching voice for over twenty years at the university level, in private studio and community music schools.

Past university teaching positions include New York University, the University of Kentucky, Transylvania University, Dean College and Emerson College.For the past ten years she has been a member of the Voice Faculty of New England Conservatory’s Preparatory & Continuing Education Division and held the role of Chair of NEC’s Preparatory Voice Department from 2011-2015. In addition to working with high school age singers, she also works with adults of all ages and levels, including recent college graduates preparing for next-level training, former Preparatory School alumni, members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, actors, and professionals from all walks of life who choose to continue to develop their voices and musical gifts. Her voice students have gone on to study at leading college and summer programs across the country. From 2014-2017, Dr. Sgroe also served as Assistant Professor of Theater and Head of Vocal Studies & Musical Theater at Dean College where she led the Musical Theater concentration. At Dean College she developed the Musical Theater concentration, overseeing the complete voice training curriculum.

Dr. Sgroe’s experience as an academic, pedagogue and administrator, is further enhanced by her experience as producer and musical entrepreneur for the past sixteen years, producing a variety of successful musical programs and events across genres and in collaboration with varied musical ensembles and performers. In addition, she has held administrative leadership positions within corporate and startup environments, including biotech, private equity and commercial music technology, serving as the go-to person for all major administration including development and execution of standard operating procedures, and most recently, legal contract administration and corporate communications. She is currently developing several additional projects as a performer and teacher including the PROJECT 2020 Recital Series, a recital series with pianist Eric Sedgwick, representing the viewpoint of contemporary women through the songs of 20 women composers of the 21st Century in works written within the past 20 years. In Winter 2021, while undertaking the #100DaysofPractice Challenge on Instagram, she developed the Passion for Practice Masterclass which re-defines the purpose and intention of practice, offering concrete tools and inspiration to empower singers in their practice. This masterclass will be presented at institutions in New England and across the country in 2021-2022. Additionally, she is in the planning stages of working with the voice teaching and voice care community in Boston to spearhead and develop the Respiration & Recovery Initiative: Post-Covid Aftercare Through Singing program. http://www.jennifersgroe.com/post-covid-rr-initiative Originally from New York, Jennifer Sgroe resides in Westborough, Massachusetts and maintains a small private studio in addition to teaching for New England Conservatory. She is thrilled to join NATS New England Region in this new role and assist in building opportunities for the singing and voice training community, advancing the view of the personal and public value of singing in our lives and communities-at-large. 
www.jennifersgroe.com

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Margaret Astrup is well known for her interpretations of contemporary American music, and has premiered works by more than a dozen contemporary composers. She has also appeared in many contemporary American operas for which she has received critical acclaim in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The London Financial Times and the New York Daily News. Her recordings include songs by Otto Luening (Elegy for Lonesome Ones), William Grant Still (An American Scene), and Alec Wilder (Such a Tender Night) with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra on the Newport Classic label and Cosmos Cantata (Cosmos Cantata) by Seymour Barab for the Kleos label, Songs by Ruth Schonthal on Albany Records, and Barab’s Little Red Riding Hood and Ayres and Ballads of the British Isles on Centaur Records. Dr. Astrup directs the Voice and Opera programs at Western Connecticut State University where she has directed more than 30 operas. She also teaches each summer in the University of Miami program in Salzburg, Austria. She has served as President of CT NATS as well as District Governor.
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Eva Conley Kendrick is a composer, vocalist, music director and voice instructor. She writes in many mediums including opera, musical theatre, chamber music, song cycles and orchestral works. Awards include the Judith Lang Zaimont Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music, 18 ASCAPLU$ awards, NATS Student Audition Awards and grants from the American Composers Forum and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She received 2nd Prize in The American Prize in the Opera/Theater Division. Dramatic works include four short operas, three musicals and Emily, a chamber opera about Emily Dickinson. Operatic collaborations include Boston Opera Collaborative, One Ounce Opera (Austin, TX), Thompson St. Opera Company (Louisville, KY) and Gateway Opera (St. Louis, MO). Students from her private studio have appeared on Broadway: Matilda, Les Miserables, Tuck Everlasting and on National Tours: White Christmas, Sound of Music, Annie, A Christmas Story, and Les Miserables as well as local and regional theatre. She is the Director of Music of First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Medfield; Professor of Voice at Dean College, and Director of the Eva Kendrick Voice Studio. She holds a Masters of Music in Composition with Distinction from the Longy School of Music. For more, please visit www.evakendrick.com.
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Jackie Grigg received her Master of Music in Voice Performance and Post-Master's Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from New York University. While at NYU, she was awarded the Steinhardt Challenge Grant for student research. Over the past decade, Jackie has had the opportunity to perform across the country. Notable roles include Missy in The Marvelous Wonderettes, Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme in Assassins, and Judy Haynes in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. As an instructor, Jackie believes that efficient and sustainable singing can be obtained in any genre. She combines science and artistry to help her students move toward balanced and healthy vocal production in many styles, with an emphasis in contemporary singing. In addition to teaching through her private studio (Center Stage Vocal Arts), Jackie serves as the voice instructor on staff at River Tree Arts and the jazz voice instructor at the Portland Conservatory of Music.
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Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine is acclaimed for her “utterly thrilling, agile voice” and praised for bringing “pathos, beauty, and heartbreaking skill” to her performances. She has performed on the stages of Los Angeles Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Florentine Opera, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, San Antonio Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, among many others. Her diverse performance repertoire ranges from the masterworks of Mozart, Handel, and Bach, to modern works such as the roles of Xanthe/Aphrodite in Mark Adamo's Lysistrata and Maria Celeste Philip Glass' Galileo Galilei. In 2017 she created the role of “Fury” in Julian Wachner’s Rev.23 for performances in Boston and New York at Trinity Wall Street, and released her debut album, Transparent Boundaries: Songs Set to the Words of Dickinson, Whitman, and Emerson, with NAVONA Records in 2020. A native of Peoria, IL, Jamie-Rose holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Illinois Wesleyan University, and received her MM and DMA from University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Distinguished Collins Fellow. She is an alumna of some of the country’s most prestigious young artist programs; the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, and Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist. Dr. Guarrine has presented masterclasses to young singers throughout the United States, and proudly serves as Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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Caroline Schiller is Professor of Voice and Director of Opera at Memorial University of Newfoundland. An artist equally at home in concert, opera, and music theatre repertoire, she has participated in the creation and performance of opera and concert works with companies that include The Banff Centre, The Tanglewood Music Center, The Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, The Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Neptune Theatre, The Dartington International Institute, the Charlottetown Festival, and The Indian River Festival. Highlights include performances with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; the American premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Sing Ariel with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and her performances in the role of Christine in the original Toronto cast of Phantom of the Opera. Recent projects include a commissioned chamber work entitled Your Daughter Fanny, by Canadian composer Alice Ho and writer Lisa Moore for Schiller and Duo Concertante’s Nancy Dahn, violin and Timothy Steeves, piano. This work draws from the letters of nurse Frances Cluett (of Newfoundland) to her mother during WWI. Schiller’s recordings include, Great Britain Triumphant! 18th-century cantatas with the baroque ensemble Capella Savaria and Mary Terey-Smith, conductor (Centaur) and Voyage to Canada, a recording of Canadian song repertoire with Kristina Szutor, piano (Centrediscs). Dedicated to the training of young singers, she is the founder and director of Opera RoadShow/Opéra en tournée. This opera outreach program tours for three to five weeks each spring, bringing new and traditional opera repertoire to schools in rural communities in Atlantic Canada. It also provides paid, professional experience to its university-age singers. She is one of the founding faculty members of the MUN Song Academy, a week-long summer intensive program in song repertoire for high school age singers and is a frequent adjudicator and clinician, giving masterclasses throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. Schiller’s passion for contemporary repertoire and its performance inspired her doctoral research, an annotated bibliography of Canadian song repertoire entitled A Performer’s Guide to Works for Soprano Voice by Canadian Women Composers. She is a graduate of Florida State University (DM Voice Performance); New England Conservatory (MMUS Performance-Opera); and Mount Allison University (BMUS).
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Lori Marino is a mezzo-soprano who resides in the greater Burlington area of Vermont. She has performed and taught professionally throughout the United States. Lori was last heard in October 2019 in Opera Company of Middlebury’s performance of Tosca, under the baton of Jeffrey Rink. In addition to her work as a concert and oratorio soloist, Lori has sung with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus and worked extensively as a professional cantor. While the majority of her work as a professional singer is classical in focus, Lori has a passion for all styles of singing. She has appeared in musical theatre and cabaret performances, fronted for a jazz quintet, performed as a lead singer for an R & B band and participated in a 2019 pop-up performance in Times Square with Carnegie Hall’s Music Educators Workshop. Lori received her undergraduate degree in vocal performance from the Ithaca College School of Music where she studied with Trish McCaffrey and Amy Zorn. After completing her degree Lori continued vocal study and Alexander Technique with Alan Bowers. She is currently pursuing her Master of Vocal Pedagogy degree at Westminster Choir College working under the tutelage of Dr. Christopher Arneson and Dr. Kathy Price. Ms. Marino currently serves as the District Governor for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Granite State Chapter of Vermont and New Hampshire. In 2019 she obtained her Vermont State Teaching license for grades PK-12 with an endorsement in music education and presently teaches at Shelburne Community School. She is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and a long standing member of National Association for Music Education and the Vermont Music Educators Association (VMEA). Lori recently served as a member of the Covid-19 Advocacy Response Team for the VMEA. As a private teacher, Lori believes that each student who walks into her studio brings with them distinct skills, abilities, knowledge and cultural context. Her students have graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and toured the world with the National Children’s Choir. They have successfully auditioned into the ACDA Honor, All-District and All-State Choirs and have obtained roles with community and school theatre programs. Lori lives with her husband Greg, her four children and two dogs in Williston, Vermont.
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