Serena Standley
Musical Director, Educator, & Vocalist
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Serena Standley (MMus & BMus Vocal Performance) is an award-winning vocalist, singing & piano instructor, and chorus director based in Cork, Passage West, and Carrigaline, Ireland. Serena is the Director of Music & Drama at Rockboro Primary School, where she teaches music education classes from J1 through J6, preschool introduction to music, Junior & Senior Drama, choir, and piano & voice lessons. Serena also founded and directs the award winning Rockboro Junior & Senior Glee Clubs, the Rockboro Rockin' Reindeer, and the Rockboro Singers Junior Choirs. Serena performs and teaches a wide range of vocal styles and repertoire, including musical theater, pop, classical, opera, folk, jazz, contemporary, and barbershop!
Serena is the Lead of the Guys & Dolls Quartet, who are the current 2019 and three-time IABS National Mixed-Voice Quartet Gold Champions and SABS International Bronze Quartet winners (2017), who have qualified for the European Championships twice. She is also Lead of The HoneyTones Quartet who are the current IABS National Women’s Quartet Gold Champions, having received the highest score of any quartet at an IABS Convention. Serena coordinates a Royal Irish Academy of Music Examination Centre within Rockboro every year, with her piano and voice students receiving high level Distinction and Honours awards in their music exams. Her students have also won multiple first-place trophies, medals, and commended awards in the piano, solo action song, group action song, junior choir, and adult choir competitions in the Feis Maitiu Corcaigh. Serena directs two award-winning Adult Choirs, Forte! Mixed Voice Choir (Cork) and JAVA Ladies' Chorus (Carrigaline) who have won multiple accolades at Cork Choral Festival and Feis Maitiu Corcaigh. Her choruses, including the junior choirs, have performed all over Cork, and throughout Ireland, and her Forte Choir are scheduled to sing at the next Prague Choral Festival. Her Java Ladies’ Chorus have won the prestigious Lynch Perpetual Trophy twice for top Adult Choir at Feis Maitiu, and they brought home the trophy for biggest increase in a performance score at IABS in 2019, having raised their score by a record 11% in one year’s time! Serena believes in cultivating a love of music and performance, and she strives to bring cutting edge vocal science and technique to her students and choruses. She has performed in many venues throughout Cork, including the Cork Opera House, Everyman Theatre, Curtis Auditorium, City Hall, Ballymalloe House, Fota House, Sirius Arts Centre, Finbarre’s Cathedral, Triskel Arts Centre, and Honan Chapel, and throughout Ireland. She has sung in various countries around the world including the United States, Austria, France, England, Spain, Hungary, Northern Ireland, and Italy. This summer, she was one of fifty vocal educators from around the world chosen to participate in the Opera Programme Berlin Teaching Online Educators Seminar, studying under some of the top vocal instructors & coaches, pedagogy experts, and acousticians in the world. In summer 2019, Serena travelled to Los Angeles, California as one of only thirty vocalists, musicians, and composers chosen from all over the world to sing and perform in the first ever N.E.O Voice Exploratorio which premiered over ten brand new compositions, and consisted of multiple workshops and lectures exploring vocal science and technique, composition, and improvisation. Serena is excited to bring her knowledge and passion for performance to her students and choirs, sharing with them not only the joy that music-making brings, but also bringing to them the most current technical aspects of singing and performance, and providing the fundamental tools for students to understand and develop their skills in a safe and productive way at any age! To book Serena for a performance or education seminar, to join one of her choirs, or to inquire about music lessons, please use the contact form. To book Guys & Dolls Quartet please use the contact form. |