MARY WALKLEY
Founder
Music Director

Mary Walkley has Florida voice studios in Miami, Tampa, and Fort Myers, and also teaches many performers in New York City. She travels throughout the world doing workshops and lessons for professionals, amateurs, and for other teachers of singing. Throughout her extensive career, she has developed a successful method of teaching voice which allows the singer to develop a healthy, commercial sound which resonates with strength and beauty.

Mary is the music director and founder of The Broadway Theatre Project, where she has worked with and learned from such entertainment luminaries as Ann Reinking, Tommy Tune, Frank Wildhorn, James Naughton, Pat Birch, the late great Gregory Hines, Ben Vereen, Julie Andrews, and John Kander, to name just a few faculty members.

Many of Mary’s students have been and are currently on Broadway and doing national tours of musicals, including such stars as Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins), Rodrick Covington (Shenzi in The Lion King on Broadway), Marque Lynch (Simba in the Lion King on Broadway), Natalie Cortez (Morales in Broadway’s A Chorus Line), Shalonda LaCombe (Shenzi in The Lion King in Chicago), Bryn Jenson (The Producers Broadway), Mandy Gonzales (currently Nina in In The Heights), and Ken Alan (lead in Fosse Broadway and the original Bobby in the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line). Other students have done leads in Chicago, South Pacific, Oklahoma, the Full Monty and The Music Man on Broadway, and in the national and European tours of Hair, Smokey Joe’s CafÈ, West Side Story, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Producers, Saturday Night Fever, and many others.

Mary founded the Speech Level Singing Institute, a Los Angeles based two-week training program in speech level singing, which was the only national workshop endorsed by Seth Riggs, with whom she studied and worked closely for 15 years. While program director for the first five years of this program, Mary had the opportunity to meet and work with Peter Gallagher, James Ingram, Nancy Dussault, Karen Morrow, Val Mayer, Lila Florentino, John Fluker, Leigh McRae, David Romano, and many other leading names in the voice community. Mary is one of only a very few select teachers in the world to have attained a “Level V” (highest) rating in Speech Level Singing International.

Mary’s pop, Latin & R&B students have signed and recorded with such labels as Electra, Sony, Sony Discus, and Universal. Her Latin students include singers from Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia and Peru, and other International students include those from Europe, Australia and Japan. She has had finalists in many of the “American Idol” competitions, and had a student make the top ten in 2005, and has worked with Katharine McPhee, who attained #2 in 2006. Mary also works with country artists, and has had students appear with Willie Nelson, Brooks and Dunn, and at the Grand Ole’ Opry.

Mary regularly travels around the country doing voice workshops and teaching lessons, at such diverse places as Myrtle Beach, SC., Jacksonville, Fl, Atlanta, GA, New York City, NY, Chatham, VA, and at schools such as the Dreyfus School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, FL, the New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL, Advanced Mentor Academy in Ft Myers, FL, and churches such as the Christian Center in Clearwater, FL. In the fall of 2005 she was in Munich, Germany, where she did workshops and lessons at Green Voices, a week-long international voice seminar where she was Artist-in-Residence. Mary is a longtime workshop provider for the Florida State Thespian Association at their annual state convention. She is training associate teachers in Tampa, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Frederick, Maryland, Orlando and Fort Myers, and has a new associate teacher in Baltimore.

Mary is vocal consultant for Busch Gardens Entertainment, where she regularly holds workshops and teaches private lessons. She was asked by Dr. Dan Vincent, a leading Florida otolaryngolist, to become a founding member of his Florida Institute for Vocal Health. Mary is the recipient of the Benedict Foundation Grant, for continued study with Seth Riggs, and the Honored Alumni award from her alma mater, the University of Tampa. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Teachers and Who’s Who of American Women, and is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is currently working with several nationally known producers and their artists in the Miami area in the areas of pop and R&B. Mary is the recipient the Honored Alumni award from her alma mater, the University of Tampa. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Teachers, Whos Who in America, and Who’s Who of American Women.

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