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The American soprano and music educator, Dena Marie Andrews, is a current student of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. She is in the completion of both a Bachelor of Misicin Music Education and Bachelor Music in Vocal Performance. In June 2010 she achieved her high school diplomacy from the Lehigh Valley Charter High School of the Performing Arts in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where she studied under David Macbeth and Jenna Lee Moore. High School achievements include collaborative work with composer Steven Sametz, Dr. Michael Horan, Kiera Duffy, and Eric Whitacre. At LVPA, she studied voice technique, music history, music theory, piano and participated in all of the schools top auditioned ensembles. Through her intensive studies as a high school student, she was also given the opportunity to participate with The Pennsylvania Camerata Singers based out of the Lehigh Valley Area and renowned Bach Choir of Bethlehem as a choral scholar. With such achievements at a young age, she was led to pursue music at a collegiate level. She accepted admission to Westminster Choir College of Rider University in 2010. Upon admission, she took on intensive studies in critical pedagogy, diction, music historiography, piano and much more. She graduated from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in May 2015 as a double-major in Music Education and Vocal Performance. At Westminster she has worked under Music Education faculty; Dr. Frank Abrahams, Dr. Sharon Morrow, Dr. Al Holcomb and Dr. Janet Cape. Her vocal studies took place under Margaret Cusack, Laura Brooks Rice, Julia Kemp and voice coaches Rochlle Jonck and Akiko Hosaki.
As a member of varying vocal ensembles, Dena Marie Andrews has worked under conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Dr. Joe Miller, Dr. James Jordan, Rossen Milanov, Valery Gergiev and Jacques Lacombe. Performace highlights include collaborative work with the Philadelphia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Solo engagements include the New York Premiere of Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings under Eric Whitacre where she shared the Carnegie Hall stage with Hila Plitmann and Daniel Tatar, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem at Zoellner Arts Center as a soloist in the performance of J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 140, and solo engagements with the Westminster Conservatory Collegiate Chorale in George Frideric Handel's Judas Maccabaeus. Recent highlights include the Sejourne's Book of Gems, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Salve Regina and J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 21.
In addition to being an active performer, Dena Marie Andrews is currently teaching in the New Hope-Solebury School District under Tom Bateman and also continues runs a private voice and piano studio in Princeton, New Jersey serving children ranging from age 3 to 10. As an educator she believes it is the responsibility of classroom teachers to prepare students with the necessary skills to succeed in 21st century society and to provide them a learning environment in which they can feel safe, nurtured, and encouraged. The combination of an emancipatory environment and 21st century societal preparation should be a priority for going beyond traditional learning. |
