2022 SNATS Summit Presenters
John Chen
John Chen is an active vocalist, pianist and conductor who maintains a rigorous schedule as a vocal coach, orchestral/choral conductor, recital pianist and high school music teacher. John has worked at the Interlochen Arts Academy and studied at the Aspen Music Festival and School where he studied organ with Thomas Bara, piano with Virginia Weckstrom, and voice with Beverly Rinaldi, Jeffery Norris & Irene Gubrud. His lineage of music teachers includes: Dr. Victoria Neve (SFSU), Corey Head (SFSU), Katherine Heater (UC Berkeley). Mr. Chen received his degree in Music Education and Performance in Voice and Piano from San Francisco State University,Kodaly Certification from Holy Names University and Masters in Education from Notre Dame de Namur. He has taught Music/Voice at St Matthews School & Crystal Springs Uplands and directed over 50 musicals and operettas. Currently, Mr. Chen is the Choral and Orchestra director at Aragon High School.
Dr. Jennifer Erickson
Jennifer Erickson, DMA, teaches in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah and in the Voice and Jazz departments at Weber State University. She has a passion for teaching voice and has enjoyed working at the university level for the past decade. She has built and maintained a private voice studio for over 25 years. She is a sought-after diction and drama coach as well as a respected voice technician. Jennifer is a dynamic singing actress known for her flexibility and versatility and enjoys an active performance schedule with local arts organizations. In addition to teaching and singing, she has served as stage director, assistant stage director, music director, and conductor for various opera projects at the community, university, and professional levels. Jennifer completed an MM and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Utah.
Diane Sloan Kubeja
Diane Sloan Kubeja initially pursued her passion for music and performance as a student, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a Master of Music degree from Eastman School of Music in Opera Performance & Literature. Based in Los Angeles and touring, Diane enjoyed a 14-year career as a performing artist in opera,
cabaret, musical theatre, television, commercials, and film. Diane found her life’s calling in a teaching career which spans 20 years of running a private voice studio in Big Bear Lake, CA. She has taught an average of 35-45 students per semester and created/directed over 90 productions. Diane’s vocal students have successfully competed in the NATS Student Auditions, the International Rotary Music Competition, the SBCMEA Solofest, and the Inland Master Chorale Scholarship Competition. Over 30 of her students have been selected as finalists and sang in the Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall and five at the Sydney Opera House. Diane gladly served as the NATS, Las Vegas Chapter Treasurer for 5 years, as a NATS vocal adjudicator for 10 years, and as an HPS Chaperone for her students and others in New York City eight times and in Sydney, Australia twice.
Dr. Rachel Velarde
Dr. Rachel Velarde, mezzo-soprano, received her BA in Music from Smith College in Northampton, MA in 1994, and Arizona State University (ASU) subsequently awarded her a two-year Teaching Assistantship in Voice. She received two MM degrees—Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy— from ASU in 1997 and her DMA degree in Vocal Performance in 2013. Her main areas of interest are vocal performance, voice literature, voice science, and voice pedagogy. She began teaching private voice and piano lessons in 1993 and became a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) in 1996, serving 3 terms as Valley of the Sun NATS Chapter President and four years as NATS Arizona District Governor. She has regularly served on the NATS Cal-Western Region Student Auditions Committee, three times as chair. Dr. Velarde is currently Professor of Music (Voice) at Grand Canyon University (GCU) and continues to maintain a private studio, focusing on singers in commercial music styles. As the GCU Student NATS Chapter (GCU SNATS) faculty advisor, Rachel has facilitated student attendance and volunteering at multiple national and regional NATS events.
During 2020, Rachel completed multiple professional development opportunities, primarily related to somatic awareness, singing, and the body. To resolve issues around her own, now resolved, muscle tension dysphonia, diagnosed in spring 2019, she turned to Feldenkrais® practitioners and other related somatic practices. These explorations have led to changes in her pedagogic approach in the singing studio, facilitating increased student progress by utilizing motor learning principles and somatic practices. In October 2021, Rachel completed the Bones for Life® teacher certification program, a somatic practice rooted in the Feldenkrais method, that targets posture and balance for walking in short, readily applicable movement processes. Teaching and singing are Rachel’s calling and passions—spreading the joy of music. If she can help students discover the joy of learning, even if not in her specific area of music, then she has done her job. Learning is a lifetime goal, and she enjoys challenging students to think about and verbalize their experiences. She finds that when she asks the right questions, students find their way to answers.
2022 SNATS Summit Moderator
Dr. Monica A. Williams-McCullough
Dr. Monica A. Williams-McCullough, a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, began her career in teaching as an Adjunct Professor of Music at the College of Southern Nevada. In 2014, Monica joined the music faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as an Adjunct Professor of Voice, receiving a full-time appointment in 2019. In 2018, she received UNLV’s College of Fine Arts Outstanding Part-Time Teacher of the Year Award and also the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Nevada Music Teachers Association. Her students are winners of regional and national voice competitions and attend summer festivals in Europe and the United States. Monica’s students have been accepted into Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices and several prestigious graduate voice programs, including Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.
Monica has performed on the operatic stage and has appeared often as a concert and chamber soloist. Most recently, she was a guest soloist in Opera Las Vegas’s Opera Legends in Black. Her performance credits include appearances with Vegas City Opera, Euterpe Opera, Golden West Opera Theatre, Nevada Opera Theatre, Channel One Television, Peabody Opera Outreach, New West Stage Company, Bell Flower Symphony, American Youth Orchestra, Moore Park College Theatre, Huntington Chamber Players, Valley Committee for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest soloist in the premiere of Andrea Centazzo’s Return to Vukovar.
Monica received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Southern California. She continued her doctoral studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and completed her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Currently, Monica is in her second term as the Nevada District Governor for the Cal-Western Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and has held positions of Vice President and Secretary in the Las Vegas Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. This is her fifth year as Director of Opera Discovery at Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices.