About Vanessa

/
About Vanessa

Vanessa Parvin
Singer/Actor/Teacher

Vanessa treats her students as musical colleagues and holds them to high standards. She helps them to thoroughly understand their instrument — be it piano or voice — and learn to use it well and joyfully. My daughter looks forward to her lessons each week, and I’m loving watching her grow in leaps and bounds as a pianist and vocalist under Vanessa’s care.

-Tracy Spangler, South Orange

Our daughter is in her third year of studying piano with Vanessa. At nine years old, she has blossomed into a skilled and confident pianist. We are constantly amazed by her new skills and abilities. She truly enjoys her lessons with Vanessa and is very comfortable with her. Vanessa is a very supportive and encouraging teacher who makes learning fun. We have been more than pleased!  

-Sarah Bennett, South Orange

A Word From Vanessa…

2022 marks my 16th anniversary living and teaching in SO/Ma. Over those years, I’ve been privileged to work with dozens of students here, both children and adults. Some came for just a handful of sessions to prepare for a big audition or try something new. Others were among the first to join the studio and are still studying today. I’ve watched them grow up and develop as musicians. It is an ongoing joy and honor. I love my job!

Background

In The Studio
In The Studio
Marquee Five
Marquee Five
Theater
Theater
Manhattan Holiday
Manhattan Holiday
Performing

Vanessa has loved singing and the stage since childhood. A member of Actor’s Equity Association, she has been fortunate to perform alongside Broadway’s Ben Vereen, Carol Lawrence, Sally Struthers, Ruth Williamson, Nancy Anderson, Burke Moses, and Eden Espinosa, among others. Favorite regional stage roles include Cinderella in Into The Woods, Marsinah in Kismet, and Irene in Hello, Dolly!. Vanessa has originated roles with Prospect Theater Company and the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), and appeared Off-Broadway opening for Voca People in 2012. She appeared in 2011 at the Godspeed Opera House as part of the Angel City Four in City Of Angels. Vanessa has been featured in a number of shows at Disneyland, and has been a professional holiday caroler for over twenty years. She is the soprano for MAC Award-winning vocal quintet Marquee Five, recently described as “The Manhattan Transfer for the new millennium.” With Marquee Five, Vanessa has appeared at 54 Below and a wide variety of stages in NYC and across the country. You can hear her on Marquee Five’s debut CD “8-Track Throwback”, now available on iTunes. Vanessa also appears regularly in concert with Vivid Stage.

Teaching

A member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Vanessa began giving voice lessons to fellow performers in 1998. In 2000, she expanded to include piano lessons and opened The June Studio in her Long Beach, CA home, later relocating to South Orange, NJ and most recently to Maplewood. Hundreds of students, children and adults, have worked in the studio since then, some going on to earn music degrees from distinguished performing schools like UC Irvine, Eastman, and Manhattan School Of Music. Vanessa has coached Broadway veterans and successful recording artists, as well as younger singers who have gone on to land roles in both student and professional productions. Piano students have worked their way through the method books, many using the musicianship skills acquired in their piano studies to expand to other instruments like upright bass, percussion, and violin.

.

Training
Piano

Vanessa began her piano training at the age of ten in San Francisco. By eleven, she was singled out to accompany her middle school choir on piano. Vanessa has been involved in piano work for children’s programs as an accompanist and musical director ever since.

Voice

Vanessa began formal voice training as a teenager, and earned a BA in Music (Vocal Performance) from UCLA. During more than 20 years of private voice lessons, Vanessa has studied classical technique and theater/pop/jazz styles with a host of wonderful teachers, most recently Dr. Bruce Kolb and Aaron Hagan, with whom she currently studies in Manhattan.

Acting

With the intent of marrying technical singing with the technique of acting, Vanessa completed a MFA in Acting at Brooklyn College in 2005. Vanessa has also studied acting at South Coast Repertory, and in workshops with Olympia Dukakis, Jimmy Smits, and Carole D’Andrea (original Broadway casts of West Side Story and Gypsy).