Mimi O’Neill’s Retirement Statement:
Over these years, my studio has been a place where people have come to develop their voices and learn about music! It has been my honor and delight to help people do this and to help them achieve what the voice is meant to be - an instrument of beauty, expression, power, and vocal skill.
The vocal technique that I teach originated within classical vocal pedagogy, as my background was in opera and classical repertoire. However, over the years, I developed a universal and versatile, well grounded vocal technique that is useful for all styles of singing! This technique evolved from my own many years of professional training and performance and through my own experience teaching many people. As I pull back now, I must praise my own wonderful vocal teachers, piano teachers, repertoire coaches, and mentors, in particular, my father, Ken Hill, who was my first voice teacher and imbued in me a great love of music and virtuosic musical ability. The excellent piano teachers Anna Lee Ross and Gustav Reihart of my youth in Altadena and Pasadena, CA., facilitated my growth as a young musician. The renowned piano teacher, Robert Turner, of Santa Monica, CA., turned me into a fine musician and almost succeeded in making me a concert pianist! Studying in Europe in the 1970's, Kammersängerin Elinor Junker-Giesen, of Stuttgart, Germany, took me under her wing as a young singer and introduced me, with her husband, the pianist and accompanist, Hubert Giesen, to the rich milieu of European artists in opera and theater, and ballet. In Seattle, WA., Spanish soprano, Montserrat Alavedra from Barcelona, Spain, brought me further in my pursuit of singing, enabling me to succeed and excel in concerts and prestigious competitions. In Seattle I also met my great pianist and repertoire coach, Suzanne Szekely, originally from Vienna, whom I studied with for eight years after meeting her in opera workshops at the Seattle Institute of Allied Arts. I credit Suzanne with imbuing in me the essence of classical Western vocal repertoire - the treasures of Mozart, Bach, and Handel, the works of the great Bel Canto operatic composers - Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, and countless other art song composers like R. Strauss, Schubert, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, to name a few. Suzanne Szekely also functioned as my accompanist in inaugural concerts in the Seattle area, essentially launching me into my professional career. My last and greatest voice teacher to whom I owe enduring thanks and gratitude was Professor Polyanne Baxter of Cal State L.A.
Pollyanne was a gifted singer and most excellent teacher who gave me a full array of very useful, developmental scales and vocal exercises based on the most current research in laryngology and vocal development. These scales, which I have taught to all my students, stand alone in their ability to enable a singer to achieve all the necessary functions of singing; breathing, vocal placement, sustaining, moving notes and ornaments (fioritura,) extended range, vocal power, focus and beauty, and were collected over decades by numerous well known vocal teachers. Her technique enabled me to reach my goal of the highest levels of operatic and classical performance and later on, to achieve great success in my world music, contemporary song and jazz repertoire.
Without the guidance and skill of these teachers I would have never developed into the professional singer and teacher that I became. I thank them all from my heart!
At this time, I also want to thank my current students and all the many previous students who have passed through my door and developed into singers - each finding their way toward their goal! I will miss you all! However, I carry with me these many rich years of connection and work: the many musical presentations, our countless Studio Recitals and Performance Evenings, our fabulous presentations in the public arena in Albany, NY, at the Egg and St. Joseph’s Hall, at the College of St. Rose, at various churches, and in particular, at Ten Broeck’s St. Joseph Church, and the Ten Broeck Mansion, in Albany. We performed also at Bush Memorial Hall, Russell Sage College, in Troy, NY, and other venues in Schenectady. I also must mention the great European tours with the Albany Ensemble and Aria - groups of talented singers from my studio who performed with me on concert tours to Germany and Poland for a number of years during the early 2000's!
I will be leaving the Mimi O’Neill Studio of Voice website up for the unforeseen future and view it as an archive of my work here in Albany. In addition, it will serve to announce my new upcoming projects: music videos, audio recordings, voice courses, and books, that will soon be available for download and purchase on my new site: www.awakenedheartpublications.com. Until then, please visit my own many music videos on YouTube @mimioneillsoprano
Mimi O’Neill soprano, pianist, author, and educator, originates from Pasadena, California. Excelling first on the piano, Mimi O'Neill traveled to Europe in the 1970s where she studied the “Zen of Sound” with coloratura soprano Kammersaengerin Elinor Junker-Giesen in Stuttgart, Germany. After returning to the US she furthered her vocal studies with Spanish soprano, Montserrat Alavedra, of the University of Washington and coach, Suzanne Szekeley, of the Seattle Institute of Allied Arts, both in Seattle, WA. A resident of Los Angeles again in the 1980's Mimi O'Neill completed her vocal studies with soprano, Pollyanne Baxter of Cal State, Los Angeles. During this time she was the featured coloratura soprano in several U.S. premiered operas including Cendrillon (Cinderella) by Pauline Veradot, and Il Crociatto in Egitto (The Crusades in Egypt) by Giacomo Meyerbeer with the Malibron Society in Los Angeles, CA.
In the early 1990's Mimi O’Neill developed her work in Europe, primarily in Germany, France, and Holland, where, besides offering concerts of classical and contemporary music, she developed her new workshop, Music For Health, creatively utilizing the transformational effects of music and sound. She was also a frequent teacher and contributor with Sufi teacher, Pir Vilayat Khan, in the Zenith Institute in Chateau Queyras, France, and Olivone, Switzerland.
In 1994, Mimi O’Neill developed a new workshop called Soulsong: Empowering Voice and Self through Sound. In Soulsong Mimi O’Neill presents a process that explores an authentic and empowered sense of self as well as the opening of the natural voice. Mimi O’Neill offered Soulsong in many cities in the US, but developed her main work in Bremen, Germany, where she created an ongoing eight-year Soulsong training group. Her book, Journey to the Sound God, reflects this work. (Self published in 2002. Available: www.mimioneill.com.)
Highlights in Albany, NY, 1990-2012:
Mimi O’Neill relocated to Albany, New York in 1989. In 1992 she sang in the premier of Max Lifchitz’s Of "Of Bondage and Freedom", a chamber piece honoring the victims of the holocaust. This work also featured violinist Yosef Yankelev and pianist Lincoln Mayorga. In Albany she founded the Mimi O’Neill Studio of Voice. She invited talented singers from her studio to join her in the Albany Ensemble, a ten member performing group. For several years the Albany Ensemble performed concerts of operatic duets and ensembles throughout the New York State Capital Region.
Mimi O’Neill toured Germany and Poland with one of these singers, tenor, John Garafalo, in 2001 and 2002, performing in Bremen, Germany and Gdansk, Poland. Later, in 2005, with a smaller Albany Ensemble she toured again to Poland where they performed in Gdansk and in Warsaw at the Jewish Institute and Museum. In 2006, she brought her new vocal ensemble, ARIA, to Bremen, Germany. ARIA offered two gala benefit performances in Albany’s St. Joseph’s Church in 2007 and 2008, the latter a Festival of America Music with pianist Lincoln Mayorga, and singer songwriter Sheri Mayorga.
Mimi O’Neill has been teaching voice in Albany, New York since 1989. Her previous voice studios were in Seattle, WA (1976-1983) and in Los Angeles, CA. (1983-1988).
Besides her musical career, Mimi O’Neill has an extensive background in meditation and spiritual teaching.
Mimi O’Neill founded The Awakened Heart School in 2006 with her husband, John O’Neill, in Albany, New York.
