Matthew Ellenwood

They/Them

Website: www.matthewellenwood.com

Location:

Chicago, Illinois

Sandboxes played in:

Singer + Actor + Director + Composer + Educator

Degrees & Certifications: 

BM, Illinois Wesleyan University

MM, Northwestern University

Estill Master Trainer (EMT)

Alba Method Associate Teacher

Teacher Training Certificate Michael Chekhov Acting Technique 

Preliminary requirements completed for Teacher Certification in Knight-Thompson Speechwork

Affiliations:

NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) and the Chicago NATS chapter

PAVA (Pan American Vocology Association) Associate member

VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association)

MTEA (Musical Theatre Educators Alliance)

ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers)

Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA)

Chicago Cabaret Professionals

What do you teach:

Voice (singing and speech), acting (theatre and on-camera), emotional regulation, artistic collaboration

Teaching Philosophy, in a nutshell:

Integrating voice science, self-awareness and emotional regulation, acting, musicality, and performance practice into a cohesive whole.

My studio's primary focii are:

  • training singer-actors in the versatile voice demands of the professional theatre and recording industries.

  • cultivating a focused mind-body-emotion awareness, paired with regulation skills, which can then be skillfully applied to life and work.

  • habilitating injured singers and professional voice users (with the assistance of a team of medical professionals).

Most memorable performance:

The delight of directing and performing in a collectively written show (music and script) with the theatre company I co-founded (Terra Mysterium).

Most embarrassing performance moment:

Losing my pants onstage during "The King and I" in front of an audience of 2,000 people...as a middle schooler, and hearing the roars of laughter.

Something we wouldn’t know if you didn’t tell us:

If I'm not teaching or directing, I'm actually an intensely shy person. I'm most at peace composing music at my piano by candlelight, or cuddling on the couch with my singing dog Emrys the Cavalon while reading a book. In essence, I'm a Victorian eccentric living in the modern era.