Teacher Award

2023 CWR Regional Conference and Auditions

This award will be given each year to a teacher, usually in the hosting district. To nominate a teacher, both a colleague and a student must participate in a survey. The colleague survey is below. Once the teacher nomination has been received, the committee chair will send the student survey to the nominee to distribute among his/her students or former students. Nominations are due by November 7th, 2022.

The nominated teacher will then submit the following:

Teaching and Performing Resume/Curriculum Vitae
Teaching Philosophy
Head shot and Bio (to be posted on our website and included in the finals program)

The CWR Cabinet will review the nominees and select a winner. The winner will be notified and receive their award at the end of the competition finals.

Teachers, to nominate a colleague or former teacher, please follow this link where you will answer the following questions:

Your Name
Your e-mail address
Name of Teacher
Current NATS Chapter of Nominee
Email address of Nominee
Phone number of Nominee
This teacher inspires me because....
Some of the best things I learned from this teacher are...

We look forward to honoring the wonderful work our NATS teachers do!

2021 Teacher of the Year: J. Arden Hopkin

Congratulations to Arden!

Arden's students submitted pages of praise. Here are some excerpts...

Ruth Ellis, who nominated Arden (but didn't participate in the voting) had this to say about him, "Arden is such a giving soul. He charges incredibly reasonable rates because teaching voice isn’t about making money for him in his “retirement” years. He also volunteers hours and hours running the voice studio at the Scera, a local arts non-profit.

I appreciate that Arden empathetically shares his own vocal journey. It builds a sense of trust and that we are in this together and not that he had it all figured out from the beginning, which no one does but sometimes people pretend they do. I appreciate that he gives me full permission to experiment, disagree, and choose for myself.

Arden has worked to be a peacemaker and a builder of communities. He chooses to step away from the fray and to actively see the good in people. Truly admirable (because I have seen some of the frays). "

Arden's students submitted pages of praise. Here are some excerpts...

"He genuinely loves his students even more than he loves music. He is patient with my progress and wants to help me reach my potential. He has a way of using all my senses, my anatomy, my body and my life experiences to teach me to sing."

"I consider Arden and his mentoring and teaching to be one of the greatest gifts in my teaching and singing career. His non-judgmental style, wry sense of humor, and supportive but honest assessments changed my singing and teaching paradigm."

"Arden Hopkin is quite remarkable. He has dedicated his life to teaching and learning. Arden is constantly looking for new ways to approach teaching, to reach a student, to create a different studio paradigm, or provide a new opportunity for the students. "

2020 Outstanding Teacher: Wendy Hillhouse

Congratulations to Wendy!

David Dehner, who nominated Wendy, had this to say about her, "I am honored to nominate Wendy Hillhouse. Wendy has had a substantial career as a professional vocalist. As a voice teacher she has taught in the San Francisco conservatory, Stanford University and her own voice studio. She brings her expertise to the NATS organization as a leader. She has served on the SFBAC NATS board and at the Western division level. She continues to serve and assist in all activities. As well as being a fantastic performer, a leader in the Nats organization, she is also a wonderful voice teacher with significant results. Her students have received many accolades with NATS and they demonstrate healthy technique taught by a expert voice teacher."

Wendy's students submitted pages of praise. Here are some excerpts...

"Like any great teacher, she has a thorough knowledge of breath

movement, posture, diction, emotionality, and style. What makes her

an extraordinary teacher, though, is that she applies this breadth of

knowledge with her philosophy of singing as a form of personal

expression such that her students are both comfortable and

passionate. She has an intensely positive attitude that rubs off not just on her students, but on all those around her. For all these reasons,

being in her studio, both as her student and singing with fellow

students, has been without a doubt my favorite experience at Stanford."

"Wendy realizes a singer's full potential and beyond. She loves finding

what makes a singer unique and develops the voice with an attention

to her students as individuals."

"Wendy continually goes above and beyond for her students and works

with them on technique & musical pieces in a way that is purely

enjoyable and personalized. Outside of teaching she is involved in

many artistic endeavors including her own musical research, and she

works to engage the greater community and administration in the arts

and advocacy of musical programming. She has a wholistic

understanding of what the music and arts communities need at

Stanford and what students actually want. As such, she works to bridge

the gaps between artistic communities. I am so grateful for my time with her."