I first met David Anthony when I was eleven years old through McCoy Rigby Musical Theatre Conservatory where he was music directing multiple shows during their summer stock season. I then went on to continue taking classes from David through the McCoy Rigby Conservatory and through MTU – Musical Theatre University. Shortly there after, I started to take private voice lessons with him. I have been training with David for almost 10 years now and he has had a huge impact on my life. He has acted as my teacher and mentor and he has inspired me to do things I did not think were possible.

Because of David my vocal control and technique have grown leaps and bounds throughout the years I have trained with him. He has such a wonderful way of communicating with each student. He understands my strengths and weaknesses and works with both sides to make me a better performer. David has given me the confidence to walk into a room and know I am going to nail any audition because of his training. Not only have I looked to him for vocal technique, but he has also made me a better actress as well. He has taught me to allow myself to be vulnerable and know that I am always enough.

Without David Anthony I would not be the confident performer I am today. I constantly look forward to voice lessons with him because he always pushes me and challenges me beyond anything I could ever imagine. I am so grateful for him and everything he has done for me I could never thank him enough for the amazing influence he has had on my life.

Ever since I began vocal lessons with David, my singing has monumentally changed. I had been to multiple teachers in the past for my voice, and although they were all great, none of their teaching styles made sense to me like David’s. While catering specifically to my needs, he knew how to prioritize the most important vocal adjustment to unlock parts of my voice I didn’t know I had. Furthermore, something I’ve found that works for me in my learning is the passion a teacher brings to the subject they teach. David Anthony is an intense teacher when he sees that his students really want to improve. He truly hopes to help people become better performers, and there have been countless times where he will, after spending hours outside of our lessons thinking, come back with an answer to a problem we’ve been stumped on. Remember how I said he prioritizes the most important thing, he constantly prioritizes his students even outside of lessons.

One of the things I found interesting about this though was that while being intense, he is flexible with scheduling, and extremely easy to approach inside or outside of a lesson, which ensures the learning environment as a safe place to experiment vocally. From cracking notes, to lack of phrasing, and even worse, to making up my own musical lines outside of the key, he has helped me through it all. I have worked with David in classes, in productions, during lunch periods, and in private lessons. Seeing him in so many different regards I can confidently say that I trust in his ability to guide me through the essential skills of being a performer/vocalist.

Finally, the most impactful thing is the trust he has in his students. I have struggled with a lot of misconceptions when it comes to my performance mindset. A few months back I had an audition that I wasn’t in the right headspace for. An hour before the audition David calls me to tell me that he has an idea for why there is a disconnect between the story I’m telling and the way I am physically portraying it. After a few minutes of talking he wishes me luck, and tells me that he knows I’m capable of killing the audition, I just have to step out of my own way mentally. To date, that audition remains the best audition I have ever had. He has taken me miles beyond where I could’ve imagined being today. Thanks to him I feel that a career in the performing arts isn’t a dream, but a possible future for me.