About
Young Singers Club Salem is a comprehensive voice and performance program designed to give kids and teens the opportunity to take professional singing lessons in a safe, nurturing, structured, and positive environment.
Individual Lessons: Sarah offers voice lessons for all ages where singers develop their solo singing abilities and learn foundational voice skills to build confidence and healthy technique for a lifetime.
Group Classes: Masterclass style group learning sessions. Singers learn solos and a group song to perform at an end of term recital.
Performing Arts Summer Camp: Week long themed day camps where singers develop solo skills, learn a group dance number, play acting games, and perform for friends and family at an end of week recital. Camps are limited to 10 students per week to focus on developing individual performance skills.
Performances: All YSC students are invited to perform for community events such as festivals, sporting events, retirement homes, and more!
Sarah Mutinelli - Director, Voice Teacher
Sarah was lucky to grow up in a musical household. The daughter of an opera singer and a trumpet player, she spent many memorable hours of her childhood watching music rehearsals, performances, and listening to her parents practice their instruments. Sarah started studying piano at an early age and learned to read music at the same time as she learned to read words!
During high school Sarah was heavily involved in the musical theater program and loved singing with jazz choir under the direction of the esteemed musician and mentor Ike Jenkins. Through choir she won several solo awards at prestigious jazz festivals including Reno and North Texas State. The jazz choir also toured Europe during the summer of 2003 where they performed in France, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Sarah received multiple scholarships to study voice at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music, graduating Magna Cum Laude. While at Cornish she studied with Grammy Award winning composer Jovino Santos Neto, jazz trombone legend Julian Priester, and many other world class musicians.
In 2006 she started teaching private singing lessons for a Seattle music studio and continued until 2011 when her son was born. After taking some time off to be with her three children, she started teaching again in 2018. Teaching music is her passion and she feels grateful to be able to share her technical skill and joy for music with her students.
Sarah enjoys performing during Christmas time with her group, Winter WonderBand and looks forward to more jazz quartet gigs in the future!
Sarah believes that with encouragement, training, and of course practice ANYONE can learn to sing!
Testimonials
"Sarah is so great! She loves teaching and it shows. She knows how to make lessons fun and my young singer’s skills have greatly improved. Highly recommend!"
Crystal
Sarah has been a wonderful piano instructor for my 9 year old daughter. She is patient, kind and truly dedicated to her students. Having a music degree and a background in education myself, I recognize the knowledge, technique and experience Sarah has in her craft. My daughter loves her and I think you will too!
Chantel
Sarah Mutinelli has been our daughter Leah's piano and singing teacher for about 3 months and we could not be happier to have found her. She is an amazing musician, singer, and teacher of both. Sarah's experience and love for teaching music shines through in every lesson through her positive, patient, and encouraging attitude. Our daughter is not only learning the technique of piano and singing but also the love of learning it through Sarah's expertise in teaching her. We are thankful to have found such a talented and sweet teacher as we have in Sarah.
Christine
Young Singers Club Philosophy
What distinguishes YSC programs?
TECHNIQUE FOR A LIFETIME: Children love to sing and we encourage their natural JOY and ABILITY by supporting what they already do well. We give them specific guidelines, techniques and scales that are age-appropriate and fun to help them with POSTURE, BREATH CONTROL, VOICE RANGE, DICTION, learning about PURE VOWELS, and EXPRESSION, and so much more. We teach them the difference between head voice singing and belting, and we explain the importance of learning both. We teach with the goal in mind that your children will be healthy, productive, and successful singers and performers throughout their lives, regardless of the careers they end up choosing. Many YSC students have become professional singers, songwriters, and teachers, however many have also chosen other careers and their vocal and performance training at YSC has given them the advantage of having experience, confidence, and poise in various group settings and in front of audiences.
TECHNIQUE FOR TEENAGERS AND ADULTS: Our voices change during adolesence and this is the time to begin more detailed vocal work. Private lessons are crucial for singers who want to learn to sing with proper support and resonance. There are countless approaches and specific techniques to improving range, tone, diction, and overall control. The quality of performance will improve dramatically under the care of good vocal instruction.
STAGE PRESENCE: Our singers practice singing regularly in front of their peers and they learn how to BE PREPARED and how to FOCUS, ENGAGE THEIR AUDIENCE, COMMUNICATE and SHINE. They have plenty of performance opportunities, especially also community outreach performances at retirement and nursing homes, so they can practice how it feels to be in front of an audience. Performing becomes a natural and normal activity for them. Though singers still might experience stage fright or excitement, they will learn how to work with that feeling.
SOLOS: Singers will take more responsibility for learning their lyrics, melodies, and rhythms when they sing alone. They are able to hear the sound of their voice and have the chance to practice vocal concepts and improve quickly. We give them fun songs to choose from and everyone gets the opportunity to sing a SOLO OF THEIR CHOICE.
APPRECIATION OF OTHERS: YSC students learn to listen respectfully to other singers and they learn how and what to appreciate. They encourage and support one another and cheer each other on. Students make friends quickly and often even find friends for a lifetime in our program.
CHILDREN'S VOICES are delicate and need to be guided carefully and professionally. Voices can quickly be overused and even injured and bad habits can establish themselves and be hard to break. At YSC it is important to us that children's voice remain free, pure, and healthy.