Vocal Arts Collaborative - Singing With The Whole Body

Sisters Carolyn Kingston, Soprano, and Diana Cole, Mezzo-Soprano, are two solo performers who have performed a repertoire of more than one hundred and fifty duets in eight languages, ranging from the renaissance to contemporary literature. They offer unusually varied programs which draw from both classical duets, opera, operetta, and folk music, as well as American popular music from Stephen Foster through the 20s, 30s and 40s. Their appearances include the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Gardner Museum, the Longfellow Historical Site, and Harvard University in Boston, MA. With folk singer and song leader Jan Maier, Carolyn and Diana founded the Vocal Arts Collaborative Inc., in 1996.

Carolyn Kingston received a Master of Music degree from Indiana Uni-versity and has sung operatic roles with Opera Barga in Italy, the National Opera Company of Raleigh, NC. and the Associate Artists Opera Company of Boston. She has sung solo and duet recitals throughout the Northeastern United States, and is currently on the voice faculty of New England ConservatoryÕs Division of Prep and Continuing Education and the Powers Music School. Known for her integrative approach to singing, Kingston offers work-shops in managing performance anxiety, vocal presence skills for speakers. She teaches private voice and voice ther-apy in her home in Belmont, MA.

Diana Cole received a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and was awarded a Minna Kaufmann Rudd Scholarship to study in Italy. For twenty-five years Cole toured the New England area with the Young Audiences Opera to Go program and has performed opera roles with the Associate Artists Opera Company, The Boston Lyric Opera and the Opera Company of Boston. In addition to being mezzo-soprano soloist at the Follen Church in Lexington she has produced and directed five operas there, including the award winning Amahl and the Night Visitors. She teaches voice in Arlington, MA and with the Musicians Collaborative at the Munroe Center for the Arts in Lexington. ,Mezzo-soprano, has taught voice for over twenty years, innovating many workshops in acting, ensemble, diction, and performance skills. She has produced and directed opera, is an active performer in the Boston Area, and was a principal singer with Opera-to-Go of Young Audiences of Massachusetts for over twenty-five years. Diana has been Director on the Board of NATS Boston Chapter, and maintains a private studio in Arlington, MA

Jan Maier is one of those people who really believes if you can talk you can sing. Although grounded in years of study of classical piano, voice, guitar, and violin, Jan prefers working with folk music because it invites audience pariticpation--one of her passions. She thrives on songs from many cultures with lots of moving parts all taught by ear, in other words, abundant with harmonies! Jan has been a choral conductor for many years in the Boston area, teaches creative workshops on improvising harmonies, and has worked for years with author Joan Borysenko as her singer/songleader at weekend retreats around the nation and Mexico. Jan's day job is a nurse in health research and mental health. She has a keen interest in studies on music and its effects on our bodies, minds, and spirituality, and offers a sermon, "Somewhere between Mozart and Prozac," and has a very eclectic CD of her own, Mountain Skyes.