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Edrie Means Weekly

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Edrie co-founded the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute in _____ with fellow SU faculty member Donna Gulstrand. In addition to teaching at the Institute, she is also a faculty member at Shenandoah Conservatory in the Musical Theatre and Voice Pedagogy degrees. If you teach only musical theatre styles, we recommend you take Sessions I and II followed by Edrie's Musical Theatre Styles course or Sessions I, II, and III with Edrie's course online.  

The Musical Theatre Styles class with Edrie was a blast! I had such fun in her class! She is such a vivacious person and her soul is bursting with love and music!

~ Vandi Enzor

About Edrie

Edrie Means, "rock star of vocal crossover” (The Cultural Feed), is an internationally recognized expert in training singers in all vocal styles and an active professional singer. She is the 2021 recipient of the Van Lawrence Fellowship Award. She was a Master Teacher for the NATS Intern Program in 2013 and is Co-Founder of the Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) Vocal Pedagogy Institute. Edrie has presented numerous papers, countless workshops and master classes at national and international conferences. She regularly presents at the Voice Foundation Symposium, NATS National Conference, Pan-American Vocology Association, the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Mid-Atlantic NATS, Northwestern NATS, and universities throughout the United States.

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“Edrie is the one person I have heard who nicely sings in and out of each style effortlessly!”
~ Richard Miller

As a leading researcher in functional voice training and healthy vocal production, she has authored research publications in The Journal of Voice regarding the teaching of the Broadway voice. Edrie’s first publication in the The Journal of Voice (2003), led to establishing the Shenandoah University’s CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute. She is a contributing author for four books; Teaching Singing in the 21st Century, The Vocal Athlete (second edition), The Voice Teacher’s Cookbook: Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing and Training Contemporary Commercial Singers. Edrie is on the Advisory Boards for the NATS National Musical Theatre Competition and NATS National Student Auditions, the Voice Foundation, the Pan American Vocology Association and the Musical Theatre Educator’s Association. Edrie is the biological daughter of The King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin.

Her students can be heard on Grammy Award recordings, on Broadway, Off –Broadway, National and International Tours, Regional Theatre, TV(including The Voice, American Idol, Kidz Star USA, Recordings, Cruise Ships, Theme Parks, Films, NYC and Regional Cabaret Venues, Concert Halls and Opera Houses worldwide.

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As a performer, Edrie has originated roles in the world premieres of works by Philip Glass, Dominick Argento, Jacob Druckman. Kaballah by Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie, the role of Binah was written with her in mind and a CD recording made with Koch Records. NPR broadcast Dominick Argento’s The Dream of Valentino, in which she created the role of Jean Aker and PBS broadcast Philip Glass’ The Making of The Representative of Planet 8, in which
she created the role of Klin. Nationally and internationally, she has appeared in leading roles with the Houston Grand Opera, Washington Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Cleveland Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Mid-Michigan, Opera Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh Playhouse, and the State Opera of Cairo, Egypt. Recitals in the United States and Canada include a New York City
debut in the New York Festival of Songs Series with pianist Michael Barrett and Guest artist with symphony orchestras of Houston, Cleveland, Corpus Christi, Victoria, and the National Symphony. She was last seen nationally and internationally on TV in the role of Suzy in the opera La Rondine, directed by Marta Domingo, which was released in 2009 on DVD by Decca. Her many performances have been broadcast internationally on NPR and PBS.

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"What a Beautiful voice and Expressive singing - that's the way songs need to be sung. Songs
need to tell a story and Edrie told the story!"

~ Celeste Holm

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In addition to her operatic roles Edrie has sung extensively in leading roles of musical and operetta production, including Follies, My Fair Lady, Carousel, The King and I, West Side Story, Show Boat, The Sound of Music, The Merry Widow and Zorba. Edrie was standby for Patti LuPone in the title role of Regina at the Kennedy Center. Edrie was standby/swing for Broadway stars Linda Lavin, Elaine Paige, Rosiland Elias, Terri White, and Florence Lacey in the Kennedy Center’s revival of Sondheim’s Follies starring Bernadette Peters. Edrie returned to the Kennedy Center for the Gala production of My Fair Lady starring Jonathan Pryce, Cloris Leachman. Edrie is a proud member of AGMA and AEA.

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