We offer you the very best of voice instruction on both an individually scheduled basis and by a Semester Plan.

 

Trial lesson/Consultation:  $90 for one hour.  If you decide to enroll in our Semester Plan for the remainder of the semester within two weeks of the trial lesson, you'll receive a special credit of $20.00 as your trial fee will be credited toward the remainder due for the complete semester.

 

Individual lessons:  $80 for one hour.  Individual lessons will be available to you when your teacher has an open time slot, and may be booked up to but no more than two weeks in advance of the lesson date.  Your payment is due at the time of the lesson.  We do ask that cancellations be made at least 24 hours in advance; otherwise the full fee will be due. 

 

Semester plans:  Our Semester Plans offer you a discount from the individual lesson rate.  In addition, you will enjoy the advantage of reserving a specific time slot for an entire semester.

Spring and Fall: The  Spring and Fall Semester programs consist of 15 lessons plus one Studio Class. We will announce the exact dates before the beginning of each semester; Studio Class dates will be announced at or before mid-semester.  Approximate dates are as follows:

 

Spring Semester: from the third week of January until mid-May

Fall: from one week before Labor Day until mid-December

Spring/Fall Semester + Studio Class Fees:   

                                 15 x 60 minute lessons:  $1040

                                 15 x 45 minute lessons:  $867.50

                                 15 x 30 minute lessons:  $695

 

Payment is due at the beginning of each semester, unless other arrangements have been made. Please make checks payable to Gori Voice Studios, LLC.

 

Summer:   During the summer months, we offer you a more flexible plan so that you can schedule around work, vacation and summer camp.  A Summer Semester Plan will consist of 5 or more lessons in a reserved weekly time slot.  You must determine in advance the weeks during which you wish to study; consecutive weeks are recommended but not required.  All plans must be prepaid.  Predetermined summer lessons missed because of student absence will not be made up; however, you are still welcome to arrange a trade with another student or send a substitute in your place.

 

Summer fees: 

 

60 minute lessons: $68 per session x 5 (or more)

45 minute lessons: $56.50 per session x 5 (or more)

30 minute lessons: $45 per session x 5 (or more)   

Student Cancellations and make-ups:   

Our Semester Plan offers you consistency and flexibility at the same time.  As a Semester Plan student, you may make up one private lesson per semester, provided that you notify us at least 24 hours before the scheduled lesson that you wish to reschedule that lesson. Our schedule for each semester includes a number of days set aside for make-up lessons, in order to make sure each student has ample opportunity to complete his/her lessons. 

 

We also  furnish our students with a complete studio schedule table for each semester, including contact information for all current students.  If you know that you will have to miss a scheduled lesson time, you may contact another student on the schedule and trade lesson times for that week.  In addition, we maintain a list of students who wish to be on stand-by for individual lessons. As a semester student, you may also contact anyone from this list to find a substitute for your lesson time.   

Teacher Absence:

As exceptional voice teachers, we are also professional perfomers, so on occasion, unavoidable conflicts arise.  If we must cancel a lesson due to professional obligations, teacher illness or emergencies on our part, we will arrange to make up that lesson with you at a mutually agreeable time.

 

If we are aware at the start of a semester that we will have schedule conflicts due to professional obligations, we will prorate your semester fee to reflect the number of available lessons.   

 

Student Prerequisites and Requirements.  Because of the unique nature of the vocal instrument, we do believe that students should meet the following requirements in order to be ready for dedicated vocal study.

Ability to read music:  Because the voice produces notes on a sliding scale rather than by striking or holding a combination of keys or strings, in our experience it is difficult to learn to read music well through the study of singing alone.  Therefore, we normally ask that students already have some ability to read music prior to beginning vocal study.  The study of melodic instruments and especially the piano is an excellent way to develop music reading skills.  In certain cases, we will provisionally begin vocal studies with students who are concurrently studying another instrument in order to acquire their reading skills. 

 

Reasonable physical health: In singing, your body is your instrument.  As such, during singing lessons, we will be asking you to move around and stretch as we develop your breath capacity and coordination.  You must be capable of light aerobic activities per your personal physician.

 

Age 13 or up:  The teen years are a time of great physical and psychological development.  These changes include not only changes in the vocal folds themselves, but also the development of greater body awareness and concentration skills.  In our experience, it is best to wait to begin individual vocal study until these changes begin to take place.  In certain circumstances, we may accept slightly younger students with advanced musical skills who are highly motivated; in most cases though, we believe younger singers are best served by developing their musical skills through the study of piano or other instruments and singing in youth choirs.

 

Materials: We ask that you provide your own music books and scores; we will work with you to find appropriate materials at reasonable cost.  You will benefit greatly from our complimentary CD-R recordings of each of your lessons. They will  provide you with  a great way to measure your progress while eliminating the need for excessive note taking during your lesson times. If you wish to record your lessons on another medium, you are welcome to provide alternate recording materials yourself.  

 

Practice:  Because in singing your body is the instrument, the only way to improve is through the consistent development of the physical skills necessary to singing.  Therefore, your rate of improvement depends greatly upon regular practice outside of your lesson time of the skills we work on during your lessons.  We will work with you to develop practice strategies to fit in with the demands of your life.   We also strongly suggest that you have access to a piano, electronic keyboard, or some other pitch-producing instrument in order to obtain starting pitches and work on learning music.

Accompanists:  We are accomplished vocal musicians, but not concert pianists!  If you are working on repertoire with a highly challenging piano accompaniment, we ask that you  provide your own accompanist or accompaniment recordings.  This allows us to focus our full attention on improving your singing, rather than the piano accompaniment.

Additional Benefits/Perqs:

• All of our students enjoy the opportunity to be heard by both teachers during studio classes and recitals and by arrangement, during regular lessons.  Thus, you will gain the benefit of the knowledge and experience of two highly skilled teachers. 
• You are also free to trade lessons with other students or arrange extra lessons in order to work with the teacher who is not your regular teacher.
• Since we are both active adjudicating members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, you may participate in the annual Maryland-DC NATS Adjudication Auditions where you can celebrate additional performance opportunities and receive valuable commentary from other NATS singing experts.  
• As professional performers in the Washington DC metro area, we will on occasion have access to free or discount tickets to professional musical performances.  We make these tickets available to our students, because we firmly believe that experiencing such performances is vitally important to our students' development as musicians.