The famous joke in instructor MaryJean Allen’s music classes is that you always leave her studio laughing and feeling better.
Allen, nicknamed by students MJ, is not an official classroom teacher at South. Instead, she has her own office in the music department where students receive one-on-one voice lessons during choir or a free period.
In the private lessons, Allen and her students usually work on songs for the recitals she produces in the fall and spring, along with preparations for auditions for the V-Show, musical, and South vocal groups.
Senior Kris Hansen, a three-year student of Allen, describes how her teaching style allows students to learn techniques personalized toward their voice.
“Personally, [Allen] has tweaked my sound so that I can sing any style with a greater amount of ease,” Hansen said. “I know that every singer’s voice is a slightly different instrument, so she is versatile in her approach with teaching because of that.”
According to senior Allison Stanek, lessons from Allen have helped her grow as a musician.
“I was just really not confident in my singing and it kind of ruined [choir] for me,” Stanek said. “But then I started taking lessons with her, and she just made me feel like my voice was special and I was actually good.”
Allen is also supportive of her students in areas besides music, according to Stanek.
“It’s a different relationship than I have with most teachers,” Stanek said. “I was out in treatment because I have an eating disorder, and she would always ask how I was doing. I can talk to her about basically anything.”
According to Allen, she talks to her students going through a rough day before the lesson until he or she feels calm enough to sing.
“I’m not a professional therapist, that’s not what I do,” Allen said. “On the other hand, if [students] come to their lesson and they’re having a really crummy day, I’m not going to immediately make them sing. That would be too hard because as singers, our body and mind is the instrument.”
Allen’s expertise is also noticed by faculty members.
“If I have a question about anything, voice technique or a style or anything, I go to her,” Choir Director Martin Sirvatka said.
Sirvatka has even taken lessons from Allen himself.
According to Allen, all her degrees are in vocal performance, and she never thought she would become a voice teacher.
“I realized not only that I was good at [teaching] but that I liked it better,” Allen said. “I feel the most passionate about helping people.”
Allen is also a licensed Body Mapping teacher, a method of learning about musculo-skeletal structure in order to improve movement and musical performance. And, she is a certified Alexander technique teacher, a method that improves ease and freedom of movement, balance, and coordination.
According to Allen, her main goals as a teacher are to help students face rejection, which occurs often in the large and competitive South Music Department, as well as building her students’ confidence.
