Renown NJ Soprano to Offer Music Education and Career Tips in Spotswood

SPOTSWOOD, N.J. - Sept. 9, 2014 - PRLog -- On Monday, September 15, 2014 at 7:00 pm, The Academy of Music and Dance in Spotwood is sponsoring a free one hour program called “Thinking about Majoring/Minoring in Music in College?” at its studios at 508 Main Street. The program is geared to the interests of public, private and parochial school music and choral directors as well as parents with teenagers and pre-teens interested in advanced education and careers in the field of music.

The program will be presented by noted Soprano Judith Nicosia, an Associate Professor at Rutgers University, where she teaches voice, undergraduate and graduate voice pedagogy, and graduate vocal literature classes.

The one hour program is designed to ask and answer many of the questions intermediate and high school music educators and their students may have when considering the study of music in college and what might lie ahead for them once a degree is in hand.
“Years ago, my parents and I struggled to find the answers to many important questions that must be properly answered prior to beginning a journey towards a career in music,” shares Melody Stevens Director of the Academy of Music and Dance. “Many of our questions didn’t really get answered until I actually began college and – SURPRISE - they were answered at Rutgers University, by my professor Judith Nicosia”.

Ms. Nicosia has often been an invited clinician at local, regional and national levels for the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association. She was also honored to be chosen as a master teacher for the 2003 NATS Intern Program. Her students are teaching and singing in tenured positions at institutions as varied as Boston University, Westminster Choir College, University of Iowa, Idaho State University and Lawrence Conservatory as well as in public and private schools throughout New Jersey and Belgium.

Winner of the 1981 Montreal International Voice Competition, Nicosia has received numerous awards including: first prize for woman's voice and second prize for the performance of Darius Milhaud songs at the Paris International Voice Competition; a career award from the National Opera Institute; a Sullivan Foundation grant; and three consecutive fellowships to Tanglewood. Nicosia has also been a soloist with the Opera Orchestra of New York, Opera Company of Philadelphia and Mississippi Opera, as well as the Montreal, Quebec, Hartford and Nashville symphonies, among others.

A specialist in contemporary music, she has sung works by Messiaen and Rorem with the composers at the piano, and recorded for the Albany, Orion, DR, C.R.I. and Centaur labels. As guest artist, she has performed with the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Performer's Committee for 20th-Century Music, New York New Music Ensemble, Princeton Pro Musica, Princeton University Orchestra, the Alliance for American Song and at Piccolo Spoleto.

The phone number to call to reserve seats is 732-251-3050. Seating is Limited, first come, first serve and a $25.00 deposit (per seat) is required to reserve seating. All monies will be refunded upon arrival to event. Light refreshments will be served.