Dr. Maryann KylE
In demand as one of the finest vocal coaches of belt, legit and classical vocal technique,
Maryann Kyle has dedicated her professional life to guiding singers and teachers in their pursuit not only of exceptional singing, but also captivating performance. Kyle has extensive experience teaching, coaching, and performing opera, recitals, concerts and Broadway shows. Additionally, she actively mentors over twenty teachers of voice and theatre in various universities across the United States, and her students can be found on the stages of the finest opera and musical theatre companies, conservatories and training programs across the globe.
Kyle was the vocal coach for the musical Twist, a new show by composers Tena Clark and Gary Prim, and directed by Debbie Allen, which opened in Atlanta in 2010 at the Alliance Theatre, and opened at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2011. Kyle is the creator of the COMMAND PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP and COMMAND PERFORMANCE BROADWAY INTENSIVE, both young artist and teacher training programs for musical theatre performance.
Maryann Kyle is an active performer of opera, concert, and recital repertoire, and has shared the concert stage with some of world’s greatest artists, having sung the role of Micaela in Carmen opposite internationally known mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves; performing as a guest soloist with The Miami Festival opposite famed bass-baritone William Warfield; and singing the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah opposite baritone Timothy Noble and mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson. Kyle has appeared as a soloist on the pop music stage with famed artists Patti Labelle, Patti Austin, Dionne Warwick, Ann Nesby and Vesta Williams. Kyle’s one-woman-show, Sondheim in the City, premiered in NYC at the Laurie Beechman Theatre/West Bank Café in October, 2011, and she recently performed the title role in Daniel Lincoln’s show, Calixte and Tosca with Opera Mississippi.
Specializing in belt and legit style Broadway technique, Kyle has had a tremendous success in training singers in the best and healthiest use of their voice, and in integrating the function of singing with their character and physical acting process. She maintains a studio in New York City and has worked with the NYU-Tisch, Playrights Horizons Studio, and the musical theatre apprentice program as a part of the International Performing Arts Institute. Additionally, Kyle has presented workshops in musical theatre belting at the 2017 Florida Thespians Conference in Tampa, Florida and over thirty universities and colleges across the United States.
Kyle’s coaching talents are not restricted to Broadway musicals. Her students are successful in the classical realm as well, many of whom have performed leading roles with New Orleans Opera, Seattle Opera, Oper Frankfurt, English National Opera, Virginia Opera. San Francisco Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Sarasota Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Mississippi Opera, Mobile Opera, The Center for Contemporary Opera (NYC), Kommische Oper Berlin, Opera Cologne and the Badisches Staatsheater Karlsruhe. Her students have garnered numerous awards including top placements at state and regional Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Sullivan Award, Savannah VOICE Festival Opera Idol, Washington International Competition, Palmai Tenser/Mobile Opera Competition, and the John Alexander Vocal Competition (Mississippi Opera,) Les Azuriales Opera Competition (France)
Her students have earned apprenticeships with Seattle Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, Aspen Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Ohio Light Opera, Brevard, Wolf Trap, Ashlawn Opera, Opera North, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Opera, Chatauqua Opera, Central City Opera, Savannah VOICE Festival, Crested Butte Opera, Opera Breve, Harrower Opera program, Cincinnati Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Emerald City Opera, Fort Collins Opera, International Performing Arts Institute and Operafestival di Roma; many continue to pursue their studies in major conservatories and schools including Juilliard, Indiana University, San Francisco Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, Oklahoma City University, Florida State University, Fordham University, Louisiana State University, the University of Illinois and New England Conservatory of Music. She has students performing throughout the world in Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand and Italy in musical theatre, opera and commercial music.
Kyle has dedicated her life to mentoring and training performer teachers. Those for whom she has mentored are teaching in universities, colleges, and performing arts schools. Placements include Colorado State University, Colorado Mesa University, University of Mobile, University of Louisiana Monroe, Northwestern State University, New Saint Andrews College, Augustana College, LaGrange College, Shorter University, Oklahoma State University, University of Mississippi, William Carey University, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Sight and Sounds Theatre and numerous community college programs.
Kyle continues to sing leading operatic roles with professional opera companies throughout the United States. She will sing the role of Liu’ in Turandot in 2018 with Opera Mississippi and is a frequent performer and soloist with music festivals and opera companies in the United States and beyond. She has toured extensively with John Wustman in the Songs of Franz Schubert Recital Series, who described her as “a lyric soprano of great and unusual gifts: an extremely musical singer that brings great beauty and style to all music that she performs,” and opera conductor Kurt Klippstatter said she “…possesses a beautiful soprano voice which is both expressive and technically well founded. Her combined vocal and dramatic talents make her a natural…”
Kyle’s main opera roles include Mimi and Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme, the title role in Tosca, Countess and Susannah in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Violetta in La Traviata, Pamina in Die Zauberflote, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, Micaela in Carmen, the title role in Floyd’s Susannah, and the Evil Queen in the world-premiere of Snow White.
Dr. Kyle is currently Chair of Graduate Studies Professor of Music with the Alabama School of the Arts at The University of Mobile. She has served as director of the Apprentice Artist program with Mississippi Opera, and vocal coach with Festival South. Kyle also served on the faculty of the International Performing Arts Institute, Germany, Operafestival di Roma, Italy and was a featured clinician at the Festival Musica nas Montanhas, Brazil. Having a passion for the art of teaching, Kyle has launched a website entitled THE PEDAGOGY OF STYLE which features videos, books, workshops and retreats for performers and teachers of singing. Her upcoming book, THE PEDAGOGY OF STYLE will be released in July of 2018 and will include article contributions from University of Florida professor of musical theatre voice, Matt Morgan. Kyle co-hosted the first Pedagogy of Style conference in 2017 and is excited to host the 2nd annual Pedagogy of Style conference on the campus of the University of Mobile in February of 2018.
In 2017 Kyle was chosen to present at the national convention of the National Opera Association (NOA) in Santa Barbara, California and was the featured master class presenter at the NOA Regional Conference in Atlanta. In 2015 she was named director of musical theatre voice with IPAI in Germany as well as the director of the Teacher Fellowship Program. The 2016 Teacher Fellowship program of IPAI chose five university professors and six were chosen for the program in 2017. These professors spent three weeks studying Kyle’s method of teaching technique and vocal style as well as serving as artist performers. “In 2017 Kyle was named director of musical theatre vocal and teacher fellowship training for IPAI, Thailand. In addition, Kyle has continued as director of the teaching fellowship program for IPAI, Germany and vocal coach for the musical theatre artists.
In the fall of 2018, Kyle joined the faculty of the Alabama School of the Arts at the University of Mobile and Chair of Graduate Music Programs for ASOTA. In 2019 she will appear at the Texoma National Opera Association as a presenter and at Southwestern University, Southern Methodist University and West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas in the month of September. In October of 2019, Kyle will present a belt voice workshop at the Winter NATS Workshop at Converse College in South Carolina. Kyle developed a course in musical theatre and commercial music pedagogy that is offered online via the Zoom network in the spring of 2019.