James Myers has been a Teaching Artist of Voice at Potomac Arts Academy since 2012. A versatile baritone, James is also a soloist at the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria and performs regularly in the D.C. area. Faculty Coordinator Claire Allen recently sat down with him to learn more about his musical inspirations and teaching.
CAllen: What is special about teaching for Potomac Arts Academy?
JMyers: I love teaching at Potomac Arts Academy for many reasons. I love that we’re affiliated with George Mason University and that we’re able to make use of their on-campus performing spaces for recitals. Even though our own building is becoming a bit [challenged] to handle our continued growth of music students, I must say that I love our building in downtown Fairfax, too. The faculty at Potomac Arts Academy is truly first rate, and I’m always amazed to hear the great variety of music coming through the doors of different studios.
CAllen: How did you first fall in love with music?
JMyers: I first fell in love with music through a combination of experiences that involved singing in church as well as beginning to sing in theater situations. My church choir director was a very inspirational woman in my life and she helped me discover my voice after if first changed. I was too shy to sing as a young child but my voice changed early for me so that around 6th grade I had the beginnings of my adult voice. By 8th grade my voice had pretty much settled into the voice I have now. I didn’t always know how to use it, but I could sing in the baritone range quite comfortably. It was in 8th grade that I really discovered musical theatre for the first time when I was cast to sing a solo in a concert version of Les Miserables at my school. This was my first real experience singing a solo that was both theatrical but also had a classical vocal feeling to it. I fell in love with it immediately. My parents had never heard me sing like that before, and they were thankfully so supportive of me exploring this new ability. By 9th grade they set me up with my first voice teacher who was a singer with the Army Chorus, and from there I was hooked on classical singing.
CAllen: Tell me about a memorable teaching experience you’ve had.
JMyers: A memorable teaching experience I had was teaching voice lessons to a professional dancer as she prepared to perform in Signature Theatre’s production of West Side Story. This particular student was a very accomplished dancer but felt uneasy singing the challenging score Leonard Bernstein had composed. We worked hard together, and she had a great success last year in the production.
CAllen: What is something unique you do when you teach?
JMyers: As far as unique things I teach – that’s hard to say because I’ve been the fortunate recipient of great instruction over the years from several great voice teachers. One thing I have borrowed from a teacher at the Peabody Conservatory is that I ask the student how something felt or what sensation did they experience while singing in a particular way. For example, if I find a singer has just for a moment released tension in the voice, I will ask them to be as specific as they can be in articulating what they did differently that time. Conversely, If a student does something not as well, I will ask them to say what went wrong and why they think that happened. The teacher I currently work with has me do this and I find that it is helpful in training the brain to identify the difference between efficient and beautiful singing from cumbersome and labored singing. Another thing I have set up in my studio is a tripod with a selfie stick attached to it so that a singer can bring their smart phone in to the lesson, clip it to the tripod, video record themselves during their lesson, and then take their phone and video with them to review later.
CAllen: Do you have any pets?
JMyers: While I don’t own a pet at present, my younger brother and his wife recently adopted a rescue dog, and I have completely fallen in love with her. Her name is Sadie and she is a German Shepherd mix. If I have a stressful day, I find that petting her will immediately help me feel better.
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