Our Founder

​​My mission is to help humanity sing.

My Story

Who knew my 5th grade chorus solo would pave my life's work? As a sensitive and shy child, that moment on stage helped me connect with myself, my peers, the audience and my purpose. I found a new confidence and new friends as a "singer".   


Eventually this California Girl came to New York City to train as an opera singer at Manhattan School of Music. My senior year, I started a school choir in Harlem and discovered my passion was using my voice to help others find theirs. So I got my Master's in Music Education from NYU and am now 20 years into teaching, and 12 years into motherhood with all kinds of experience (see below). I'm so grateful for everything this singing journey has brought me. 


Now I'm paying it forward by closing the information gap that exists in voice education for children.  I've borrowed from the best - in voice, teaching and learning, child development and music literacy - and built upon it to create a comprehensive, sequential program to train young singers as vocal athletes that simply doesn't exist anywhere else.

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I've helped over a thousand beginning singers learn to soar and develop clear, powerful voices by learning healthy habits from the start. I've repeatedly seen the "shy" kids conquer fear and take the stage. Finding confidence, connection and breakthroughs from a young age...that's what Young Singers Academy is really about.

My Experience

If you can talk, you can sing...and I have the track record to prove it! With 20 years of experience, I've pioneered a happy and healthy singing approach resulting in students learning to sing in tune to those dazzling the stages of school shows, family celebrations, LaGuardia High School, The Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall and Broadway.


Former Global K-12 Music Specialist at The Juilliard School and Carnegie Hall's Music Educators Toolbox creator, I'm an experienced: mentor of music teachers, musical director, choral director, music teacher, voice teacher, piano teacher, workshop presenter, curriculum and assessment writer, music and voice teacher board member, and arts administrator. Former faculties include: New York University, Village Community School, City & Country, The Metropolitan Montessori School, and The Metropolitan Opera Guild Education. 


A contralto, I've performed as a featured soloist at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, the Knitting Factory and the United Nations. I premiered several new operas and performed in musicals, plays, films, concerts and recitals.
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Becoming a NYC mom was a game-changer. I'm the proud mama of Madison (13) and Wyatt (12) and kittens Sapheira & Sterling. I live with my husband in Greenwich Village.

www.vielka.com

My Faves

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When I'm not singing, teaching or learning,  
I love yoga, meditating, running, traveling, snuggling with my family (2 children, 2 kittens) & enjoying the view.

"As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has - or ever will have - something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression."
​- Fred Rogers