BIO
Matt Edwards is one of the leading voice teachers for commercial and musical theatre styles in the United States. He is currently Associate Professor and Coordinator of Musical Theatre Voice at Shenandoah University, Artistic Director of the Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute, past Secretary for both the Pan-American Vocology Association and the Musical Theatre Educator’s Alliance, a Voice Foundation/NATS Van L. Lawrence Fellow (2017), and NATS Intern Program Master Teacher (2018).
Edwards’ vocal interests encompass many styles. He has performed numerous roles in plays, musicals, and operas with companies including Tri-Cities Opera, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, New Jersey Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival, Bay View Music Festival, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Pops, Hudson Valley Symphony, the Miami Valley Symphony, Cincinnati Opera Outreach, Lyric Opera Cleveland Outreach, Theatre Lab, KNOW Theatre, and many others. He has also performed as a solo artist and with numerous bands, and received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Dayton Opera Guild Competition, The National Association of Teachers of Singing, Southern-Tier Opportunity Coalition, and the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges.
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​Former and current students have performed on American Idol, Broadway, off-Broadway, on national and international tours, on national television, cruise ships, at theme parks and in bands touring throughout the United States. He has written articles for the Journal of Singing, Journal of Voice, VoicePrints, American Music Teacher, The Voice, Southern Theatre, and has been a Vocal Coach in Residence for Voice Council magazine. He has contributed to books including “A Dictionary for the Modern Singer” by Dr. Matthew Hoch, “Vocal Athlete” by Dr. Wendy LeBorgne and Marci Rosenberg, The “Manual of Singing Voice Rehabilitation” by Leda Scearce, “Get the Callback, 2nd edition” by Jonathan Flom, and the Sacred Music, Gospel, and Country editions of the “So You Want to Sing” book series. His book “So You Want to Sing Rock ‘N’ Roll?” is published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishing and was called “an authoritative text on rock ‘n’ roll singing” by Classical Singer magazine.
In high demand for his presentations and master classes on commercial and musical theatre voice, he has presented at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference and Summer Workshop, Voice Foundation Annual Symposium, Acoustical Society of America, Association for Popular Music Education, Southeastern Theatre Conference, Musical Theatre Educators Alliance, Pan-American Vocology Association, United States Air Force Singing Sergeants, Carolina Voices, Duke Voice Care Center, Arts Bridge, at dozens of universities including Penn State, Brigham Young, Toronto, Wright State, Alabama, Georgia Southern, Otterbein, Illinois Wesleyan, Mary-Hardin Baylor, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ohio Northern, Northern Colorado, Missouri State, Texas Woman's University, DeSales, Bårdar Academy (Oslo, Norway), and for NATS Chapters in Toronto, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, NYC, Kansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, Arizona, and many others.
Online at CCMInstitute.com, EdwardsVoice.com, AuditioningForCollege.com, and EdwardsVoice.blog.
Downloadable CV
"Matt is a true visionary for 21st Century Vocal Pedagogy. As the Artistic Director of the New CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute, he has revolutionized a new diverse curriculum pulling from seminal, science-based resources providing participants an unbiased, well rounded experiential process that leaves them well equipped to integrate techniques immediately into their own studio and teaching settings. Additionally, as a national presence for contemporary vocal pedagogy, Matt has been a driving force behind integrating contemporary pedagogy practices into collegial pre-professional BFA training programs. With his hybrid background as both a classically trained singer and CCM performer, Matt is a wealth of knowledge of the components that bridge these two pedagogical approaches.
As a colleague, he is collaborative and generous. Teachers and academicians like Matt are few and far between. "
Marci Rosenberg, CCC-SLP, University of Michigan Medical Center, author of "The Vocal Athlete"