Teaching

 One day we’ll be able to get together in person, but for now we can use Zoom or other online platforms for lessons. 

Private lessons are available

Ruthie can help you develop breath support, relaxation and tone production techniques. She also works on repertoire and understanding theory, style, and form. Her belief is that the connection to our emotional body and communication through the voice in a natural way is a singer’s higher power. Combining that with technique is a vocalist’s ultimate power. She can also teach you to prepare your own music lead sheets, how to communicate with other musicians. Students of hers include those who just love to sing and want more practice but she also works with music professionals.

Styles include jazz, swing, pop, folk, blues, and R&B.

Ruthie has studied classical technique in the bel canto style, is certified in the Somatic Voicework MethodTM with Jeanne LoVetri, has explored multi-disciplinary techniques for breathing and relaxation such as yoga and pranayama, Tai Chi, Tao-In Taoist techniques, and other healing and toning voice modalities.

Ruthie has decades of performance experience in clubs, concert halls and festivals in bands and vocal groups, as well as choral groups, gospel choirs, madrigal singers, barbershop quartet, and in the chorus for Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum written in 1151.

Please email her with questions.

Sheboom is a Somerville/Cambridge post-menopausal percussion and vocal ensemble. They use Brazilian rhythms to drive mashups of popular music.

Ruthie as group vocal coach: “Ruthie gives us confidence in our voices. Her enthusiasm is so important. She gives us oomph.
She’s got good tips on singing, performance, movement, and focus, too.
She’s got it all.
Ruthie’s fun. She’s got a great sense of humor, and that’s so important.
She gives us courage and strength and she's an amazing listener.
She thinks about how to put things together, how to blend our voices, how to express what we want to say.
Ruthie always makes you feel that your voice is worth being heard.
She is always positive."

“When I was preparing to record What Living's All About, my first album of jazz and blues tunes, I took a lesson with Ruthie. I greatly enjoyed this experience, and also noticed immediately how she changed my approach to the project. She is both an expert in her field and a soul with a deep understanding of people and life itself. She also took this photo of me which graces my world music album, Beyond Living.”

— Alicia Bay Laurel
https://aliciabaylaurel.com/