We had the good fortune of connecting with Charlotte Martin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charlotte, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I have always wanted to be a professional singer/songwriter. I started studying opera at 7 and went on to get a degree in opera performance in college. In high school and college, I was already running my own private voice studio and had 25 students but had to stop because my school schedule got to be too intense. After graduation, instead of going to graduate school, which had been my plan so I could get a masters, eventually PHD and teach music at the collegiate level like my dad, who taught woodwinds at Eastern Illinois University for 53 years.

Instead, I skipped graduate school and moved to LA to try to get a record deal. And I did. A couple big ones, and thus began the slow and tedious process of “entraining” myself to sound more rock/pop and not like an opera singer!

When I decided to start teaching, I called my manager and told her I was going to write a method book fusing my classical background with pop vocal techniques I have developed over the many years I’ve had making albums and touring North America. And then opened my school online first, which is called Something Like A Voice Lesson Performing Art School. I also opened a recording studio called Charlotte Ave Studios where I produce and cowrite with a handful of my students on the roster. I now have students in 13 countries and have just started to franchise my method, but it’s very early. My focus remains on my students.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As an opera singer, I have trained with the best teachers in the world, sang in over 30 operas and understand the science and mechanics of singing, as well as developing my own methods, exercises and techniques along the way. I also had 3 record deals, released 18 albums and have played over 3000 concerts over the years. As far as I know, I am the only voice teacher in the world that has the classical training that I do, but also had a real career in the rock/pop record business. Those two backgrounds make me very unique and able to teach, write, work, instruct, produce or play in any style.

I am not selling autotune. I am passionate about building REAL musicians, singers that don’t need to sing through computers and be edited to death. I am selling excellence as long as students want to have those skills. I didn’t cheat, I had to learn to actually sing. And that takes years, practice and more practice. I am also passionate about helping songwriters and performers. I cowrite with about 11 of my students currently and coach the others who want to write.

I want the musicians we work with to be MASTERS at their craft like I am, And I can get them there….I have the training and the performing experience. I also mentor some of my artists as they currently have record deals and are trying to navigate the new music business after covid, so we offer music business classes, help artists distribute their music and get it to the world.

I also teach many musicians that do it for fun! And that is equally as inspiring and important to me!!!! We have so many kids on the roster! Ages 4-16 at the moment, and we work on anything from musical auditions, piano, songwriting, theory, solfeggi…

I would like the world to know there are not shortcuts to the skills of playing, writing, singing, and producing. I have raw talent like most people Im working with, but what I did have was the drive to do it over and over and over and over and over and over until you’re basically a monster and blow peoples heads off when you’re on stage. All of that takes work. But I love the work soooo….it didn’t bother me! I could do it forever and not get bored!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I LOVE San Diego! My favorite spots are downtown in the Gaslamp district…I love little Italy and love hanging out where the big pirate ship and air craft carrier on the bay.

Id arrive on a Friday, stay in the Hyatt (yes!!) downtown on the water, then Id walk to the little shops on the bay there and maybe go for seafood near where the ships are! And then Id hop on a boat to Coronado to hang out and maybe have dinner and take the boat/ferry back…sleep wake up and repeat!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
THIS IS MY FAVORITE QUESTION!

I have had SOOOO much help since opening the school. First of all, I started it with my longtime manager and best friend Lisa Lombardo- Pachecho who I met in 2003 before my first release on RCA records. She slowly over the years has become the best manager I have ever had and helped me launch the web components, policies, recitals, etc…advertising, marketing…she has done it all. I would not be here without her! THANK YOU LI! I have two amazing assistants who help me a lot who are also students, Samantha deLuca and Aria Knight have been assisting me in the studio, helped me host recitals and helped with shows, booking…they are SO helpful and I love being around them all the time! I also would like to thank some of my students who helped with the new CharlotteMartin.com website and show marketing we just launched, Sarah Mabe, Brent Wilson, Natalya Lakhtakia, Bryan Cohen, to name a few.

Website: http://www.charlottemartin.com

Instagram: @charmarmusic

Twitter: @charmarmusic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CharMarMusic/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqqzTx9cqsVJrZIG8veBYg

Other: You can find Charlotte’s latest Single “Goodbye Song” on all digital retail platforms worldwide. If interested in learning more about Charlotte’s Performing Arts School, email info@somethinglikeavoicelesson.com

Image Credits
Charlotte Martin

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