Teaching/Workshops

Vocal Workshops

Chicago Vocal Boot Camp

A week of working with Ellen Winters and Roberta Duchak; singing through the Musical genres: Musical Theatre, Jazz/American Songbook and Pop/Rock. This week-long vocal intensive will help you master vocal technique and style at the same time. Students will get to work with award-winning performers/voice coaches Roberta and Ellen on a variety of solo and ensemble numbers. Registration is $495 for the week (discounts available for current students of Ellen & Roberta) and includes a final, public performance on the last day. Two Sessions: Ages 10-15: 10a-1p & Agest 16-25: 2p-5p. 2018 Dates to be announced.

Vocal Audition Boot Camp

At the end of an audition, don't you wish you could just ask your auditioners "How did I do?" There is nothing more nerveracking than that feeling of uncertainty after an audition. Going in, you're nervous.....while you're doing it, you're nervous....afterwards, you're anxious. The Vocal Audition Boot Camp will offer students (ages 13-19) an opportunity to find out how to best prepare for an audition - whether it be for your school production, a community/professional company or your College/University auditions. Chicago/Milwaukee voice teacher, Ellen Winters, has assembled an amazing panel of area professionals to help guide students through the process and also give immediate, constructive feedback after the "mock" audition at the end of the week. Students will have the opportunity to work with a professional music director, choreographer, photographer and Broadway performer during this 5-day intensive.

Activities include:
- One-on-One time with a Professional Accompanist
- Time working with a Professional Choreographer, learning a 16-bar dance audition
- A 20-minute photo shoot with a Professional Headshot photographer, and an opportunity to purchase headshots at a discount
- Daily sessions with Professionals on how to present yourself in an audition
- A “mock audition” on Friday, before a panel of industry professionals with feedback session.

PREVIOUS FACULTY
- Director of "Musical Mainstage" at Sunset Playhouse and the "Rising Star" program: Susan Dwyer Loveridge
- Artistic Director, Sunset Playhouse: Nancy Visintainer Armstrong
- Internationally acclaimed Broadway performer: Johnny Rodgers (www.johnnyrodgers.com)
- Music Director/Accompanist: Choral Director/Music Director, Donna Kummer, Paul Helm & Paula Foley Tillen
- Professional Photographer: Michaela Ristaino of Ristaino Photography (www.ristainophotography.com)
- Professional Choreographer: Reginald Kurschner
- Regional College/University Faculty: Ellen Winters, Adjunct Faculty, Columbia College Chicago

***Stay tuned for 2017/2018 dates. These workshops can work in other cities, so please contact me if you'd like to bring this to your City. ****

TEACHING

Ellen is passionate about teaching. In the last 20 years, she has taught in a variety of settings and has worked with students from ages 10 to 70. Ellen's favorite part of teaching is connecting different generations with each other through Music. Whether she is working one-on-one in her private studio, in a classroom or as a Guest Artist/Clinician, she shares her passion for Music.

CLINICS & WORKSHOPS

Ellen has teamed up with wonderful colleagues to create some wonderful "Boot Camp" experiences in Milwaukee and Chicago and plans to continue to work with students of all ages in all musical genres. Workshops, classes and private lessons are all formats that Ellen is comfortable working in and she believes that every student deserves a unique learning experience. If you're more comfortable in a group, then Ellen provides workshops and clinics year round to suit your needs. If you really want the intimacy of a one-on-one voice lesson, then you will learn proper technique, style and vocal placement concepts in whatever genre you choose.

“Thank you Ellen for serving as clinician and guest artist. I really appreciate your musicianship and your consummate skills as an educator; you made our entire spring concert a success with your contributions and leadership!” –Allen Redford, Highland Community College

As a Guest Artist and Clinician, Ellen has been an adjudicator at the Jazz On The Rock Vocal Jazz Festival in Whitewater, WI and the Best of Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships in Des Moines, IA. She also worked with high school and collegiate programs at University of IL - Champaign/Urbana, Terra State Community College in Ohio, Highland Community College in IL, Arrowhead High School, Grafton High School and Whitefish Bay High School in WI. She also co-presented a Vocal Jazz session at the 2011 Ohio Music Educators Convention. She was a long-time member of the former International Association of Jazz Educators and is now a member of the Jazz Education Network (JEN.)

VOCAL JAZZ
Ellen can provide workshops to heighten your students’ Vocal Jazz awareness and Aural abilities. Over the last 20 years, Ellen has a strong background in singing vocal jazz and close-voice harmony and also served on the faculty of the Phil Mattson Vocal/Choral Summer workshops as well as the Western Michigan University Summer Vocal Workshop with Steve Zegree. Ellen was also a former director of the Columbia College Chicago Jazz/ Pop Choir. Ellen has a variety of exercises to help you work with your group from the most intermediate to the most advanced level of singing.

Ellen has been amazed at the demand for good, accessible vocal jazz literature. She has been thrilled to work in several Milwaukee area schools as a vocal jazz consultant and clinician and has over 200 arrangements in her personal library. Ellen can help put you in contact with many up and coming as well as established arrangers and can help you find the right literature for your group. The most important thing a music teacher can do is provide the right opportunity for students to learn and understand Vocal Jazz through literature that is accessible and still true to the art form. It is Ellen’s belief that this initial exposure is crucial in creating the audiences of the future, just as it will help inspire the jazz musicians of the future. One cannot exist without the other.

Ellen continues to pursue opportunities to sing in small groups and vocal duos just to keep her ear and voice strong in this area.

PRIVATE INSTRUCTION

Hartland Music Senior Recital 2016

Ellen is a 3-time winner of the Shepherd Express Reader's Choice Poll as "Best Jazz Artist" (2004, 2005 & 2006) and has been nominated multiple times as a top vocalist for the WAMI awards (Wisconsin Area Music Industry,) including Best Jazz Artist in 2017. Ellen has received rave reviews as a jazz singer and performer from and continues to tour professionally. She arned three DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards in college (with VoicesIowa under, the direction of Phil Mattson and with Gold Company under the direction of Steve Zegree) and continues to be sought after as a clinician, vocal jazz consultant and adjudicator.

Ellen has been a part of the Columbia College Chicago Music Department faculty since 2007, teaching Music Theory, Jazz/Pop Choir, Music Prep, Techniques in Singing and also serves as a Private Voice Instructor. Ellen has also worked as a Private Instructor at the Waukesha Conservatory of Music (Hartland Music) since 2006, teaching all ages and styles. Her students have gone on to thrive in top college Performing programs at schools like Loyola University in Chicago and Berklee College of Music in Boston.