Background and performance experience –
Meredith Borden has been pursuing the art of singing since she was a young girl growing up in Central Massachusetts. Borden started exercising her voice in the church choir with Dad as minister and brother as church organist. Her interests expanded to school choirs and eventually to her acceptance as a voice major at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where she went on to earn a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Music specializing in Vocal Performance and Opera studies under the tutelage of opera impresario John Moriarty. Harnessing her burgeoning talents as singer, dancer and actress, Borden made the move to the Big Apple in 1991 at which point she began working steadily as a professional performer in musical theatre, concert, microtonal music, operetta and rock/blues venues. A few of the many companies she has performed with over the past 20 years of her singing career include New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, Queen’s Chamber Band, Soho Baroque Opera, American Festival of Microtonal Music and the European touring company of the musical HAiR in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. She has performed lead and featured roles at regional and summer stock companies including The Weathervane Theatre (NH); Seaside Music Theatre (Daytona Beach, FL); and American Repertory Theatre (Boston, MA). Some of these roles include Christine in Phantom of the Opera , Fiona in Brigadoon , Maria in West Side Story , and Isabel in Pirates of Penzance . Borden toured for 6 months as a singer/dancer with the Rotterdam Revue Company on board the SS Rotterdam performing from Alaska to South America to Hawaii, with many ports in between. In the world of contemporary music theatre, she has appeared in the premieres of Philip Glass’ The Juniper Tree and Meredith Monk’s American Archeology . Borden performed the role of Crow and Persephone at Merkin Concert Hall in NYC in Elodie Lauten’s Orphreo , as well as the lead gospel singing role of Compassion in the opera Waking in New York , a work featuring the writings of American iconoclast Alan Ginsberg. She currently sings as lead blues vocalist in electric blues-rock band 13 O'CLOCK BLUES BAND based out of Boston. Read more at www.13oclockbluesband.com
Borden has developed a unique approach to vocal instruction and vocal coaching that has a liberating affect on her students. She works from a solid technical foundation rooted in the classical "bel canto" tradition gained from years of study with such highly respected teachers as Neil Semer in New York City, and H. Wesley Balk in St. Paul, Minnesota. Borden has drawn upon exercises and techniques used by many of these instructors to develop her own style of channeling the core energies of the body through the voice, individualizing this approach to suit each student’s needs. Thus, the singer learns to open pathways to his or her own personal sense of vocal freedom. This is not a “one size fits all” approach to learning the art of singing. This approach is based on energetic and vibrational principles, coupled with traditional “bel canto” vocal exercises, and other exercises developed by Borden. This technique allows the singer to tap into and open up the voice in a natural and organic fashion designed to produce audible results in the singer’s tone and vocal quality. Borden also incorporates physical movement into her teaching style, drawing upon many years of dance training and professional stage experience with scores of performances under her belt. Borden’s work with young singers (age 10 – 17), as well as with adult singers, helps them strengthen and nurture their voices in a healthy and joyous manner, simultaneously developing musicality, ear training, and confidence as a performer. Describe the mission of your organization. When preparing a student for an audition, Borden is able to raise the singer’s performance energy level, such that the performer shines both from a vocal and a presentational standpoint. Borden encourages each singer to go beyond what he or she thinks is even possible. Ear training and solfège (the French sight singing method) are also teaching tools in Borden’s repertoire, enabling her students to hone in on a solid sense of harmony and excellent intonation, paving the way for further musical and vocal success. Many of Borden’s students have performed lead roles in regional musicals, are involved in intensive musical theatre programs for emerging artists – and have even gone on to spearhead singing groups of their own. Borden also works with adult singers who want to improve their singing technique and gain more confidence in their voices.
In addition to her current private vocal studio located @ WildHouse Studio in Randolph, MA, and for more many years in Hoboken, NJ and NYC, Meredith has worked in a variety of music education settings over the course of the past 20 years. Since 2015 Borden has been on the Adjunt Voice Faculty at UMass Lowell in the Dept of Music teaching a large flock of private voice students in styles of ranging from rock belt to classical opera in addition to Applied Voice Classes in Diction and Performance. She has also served on the Voice Faculty since 2014 at South Shore Conservatory in Hingham and Duxbury, Mass, teaching private voice lessons to children, young adults and adults, as well as Primo and Mezzo Voice Classes for young voices ages 7 - 12, and is also an active vocal presence in the JRP (Jazz/Rock/Pop) Department at SSC. Borden's voice students at SSC have won accolades including top prize winners in the SSC Söderberg Voice Competition in both classical and contemporary styles as well as lead roles in community and school productions. From 2011 - 2014, Borden taught voice and piano lessons at School of Rock in Tenafly and Montclair, NJ, and also freelanced at various other School of Rock locations in New Jersey, teaching both private lessons, as well as instructing students in the art of recording and conducting summer camps that taught fledgling rockers how to find their own unique voices and define their onstage personas. Borden has also taught vocal performance classes for high school students as part of the ARTSBRIDGE program at Hoboken Charter School, and in the liturgical realm, Borden served several seasons as the children’s choir director at Saint Lawrence Church in Weehawken, NJ where she worked with young singers in a variety of church presentations, including a project in which Borden composed, arranged and produced a CD recorded by the SLC girls’ choir incorporating their own poetry called AMEN! Borden also coached and trained the lead child singer in a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” . Other musicals Borden's students have performed in include “Seussical the Musical”, "James and the Giant Peach", “13 The Musical”, "School of Rock", "The Lion King", "The Secret Garden" and many other productions.
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