Jean Anderson
Vocal Coach - Lieder
Teaching Philosophy
As a coach, I believe that the best performances combine discipline — thoughtful, relaxed musical, linguistic, and stylistic preparation — with a playful and childlike spirit of imagination and “let’s try this”. As artists, we need both rules and freedom. To that end, I try to create a workspace for my students that has high musical standards and a strong work ethic, but also allows us all to be imperfect, to ask questions, to try things that may or may not work, and above all to laugh. We seek to enter as deeply as possible the unique worldview of each character. Bringing these characters to life for our listeners allows us and our audience to see in new ways, becoming more compassionate and understanding of the human condition.
Dr. Jean Anderson is a nationally-recognized vocal coach and pianist. She is the principal opera coach at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she also coaches art song, and teaches courses in operatic recitative and aria studies. She also teaches at art song and collaborative piano courses at Boston University. She has been active as musical advisor, pianist, and coach for the Boston Opera Collaborative, and has served as vocal coach and pianist for Canto Vocal Programs, Berklee College of Music’s Summer Opera Intensive in Valencia, Spain, University of Alaska’s Summer Arts Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Northern Arizona University’s summer opera program Flagstaff in Fidenza in Fidenza, Italy. She has worked with Boston Lyric Opera, the Tanglewood Music Festival, The Tanglewood Festival chorus, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Opera Providence, Harvard University Summer Chorus, the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus, the Back Bay Chorale, the Orpheus Singers, Brandeis University choruses, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been in residence at many schools of music, including Rollins College, University of Texas (Austin), University of Connecticut, and Northern Arizona University. She collaborates in recitals regularly with her husband, baritone David Small, mezzo-soprano Felicia Gavilanes, and soprano Emily Siar.
She maintains an active schedule as a recitalist, performing with singers in the United States and Europe. Engagements have included concerts in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Rome, Santo Stefano, Italy, Hartford, Connecticut, Austin, Texas, and Valencia, Spain. Her performance of Mirror with singers from the Boston Opera Collaborative was named one of the ten best Boston classical music performances of the year in Boston’s Classical Music Review. She recently recorded an album with mezzo-soprano Felicia Gavilanes, featuring song settings of the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. She is also the author of the book The Young Classical Singer’s Toolbox.
Dr. Anderson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory. Principal teachers include Margo Garrett, Irma Vallecillo, Kayo Iwama, Kenneth Griffiths, and Hartmut Höll.
