About Us

Judy Ann Curtis, lyric soprano, has spent her life on the stage as a singer, pianist and dancer. She has performed with many music organizations throughout the Northeastern United States as a choral singer and soloist and has appeared in leading roles both in musical theater and opera productions. Additionally, Mrs. Curtis has a long history as a recitalist and church/synagogue musician, holding many positions as church soloist/choir section leader/Director of Music and synagogue Cantor in the reformed setting. Locally, Judy and her husband John have served as the music ministers at St. John’s Episcopal Church-by-the-Sea in Avalon, St. Simeon’s by the Sea in North Wildwood and St. Barnabas by-the Bay, Villas. Judy has maintained an active performing schedule as a core singer/section leader in the Mendelssohn Club Choir of Philadelphia performing concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

Judy and her husband have performed many solo concerts as well as collaborating with other local musicians on the St. Barnabas by-the-Bay Episcopal Church Concert Series, Villas, NJ and the Margate Library Concert Series performing varied and educational concerts often centered around their harpsichord. Judy also sings regularly with the John Walter Cape Community Band, giving concerts throughout Cape May County. She recently appeared in a fully staged production of the opera The Medium at the newly renovated Gateway by the Bay Theater in Somers Point and Amahl and the Night Visitors. She has been a talent judge for several regional pageants in the Miss America circuit. Her latest endeavor is managing a series of concerts at Cold Spring Presbyterian Church for her performance collective Cape Classical Artists.

Mrs. Curtis has performed as a pianist as well. She has been heard in recitals, as soloist with orchestra and as an accompanist for soloists and choirs. Additionally, Judy has been pianist and director for children’s church choirs directing Christmas pageants and music for Vacation Bible School.

At the collegiate level, Mrs. Curtis has taught at The Pennsylvania State University, The University of Scranton, Marywood University, Misericordia University and Temple University. She has also been the vocal coach for many collegiate and community musical theater productions. For over 30 years, Judy has operated her own private voice and piano studio in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania before moving permanently to the south Jersey area and opening Musikhaus Studio with her husband. She has worked with elementary, teen, college age and adult piano and voice students throughout her entire teaching career always finding joy and fulfillment in passing along knowledge to anyone interested in learning.

Judy holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in vocal performance from Moravian College, Manhattan School of Music and Temple University with post-graduate studies at SUNY Stony Brook. She has studied with Suzanne Sten-Taubman, Gary Glaze and Lois Bové all of New York City, Susan Boyer, internationally acclaimed early music specialist Julianne Baird and most recently with Kim Steinhauer and Dr. Cari Tellis, CCC/SLP. She has coached with Martin Katz, Richard Raub and Claude Stein. Mrs. Curtis has completed Estill Voice Training, levels I and II. Judy met and worked with pioneering voice scientist Jo Estill over 25 years ago, when Estill first began formulating her series of vocal figures based on her own physiological research of the voice and the science behind its inner workings. The Estill figures are a model for teaching singing of all styles of music including belting, as well as aiding in the treatment of vocal disorders.

Judy’s professional associations include The National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity, Tri-M Music Honor Society, the Music Teachers’ National Association (MTNA), the NJ State and South Jersey chapters of MTNA and The Voice Foundation. She is the proud mother of two very talented boys who have always been supportive of and even gladly taken part in their parents’ musical and theatrical adventures and endeavors.

John Curtis began studying piano and music theory at the age of six with Ruth Goode in Beaumont, Texas. He continued his studies during his high school years with Amos Allen, professor of piano at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. While in the D.C. area he was a finalist in concerto competitions with the National Symphony and the Fairfax (VA) Symphony.

After graduating from high school, Dr. Curtis traveled to Boston to study with the renowned concert artist Veronica Jochum at The New England Conservatory of Music. While at the Conservatory he participated in master classes with Gabriel Chodos, Victor Rosenbaum, and Leonard Shure, and earned a Bachelor of Music degree with honors in Piano Performance.

As Dr. Curtis pursued an active career as a pianist, organist, and accompanist in the Boston area he was asked to conduct a few area choirs. This led him to begin his studies in conducting with Phyllis Isaacson in Lexington, MA. He went on to earn a Masters degree in Choral Conducting at Temple University in Philadelphia where he studied with Alan Harler, and a Doctoral degree in Choral Conducting at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he studied with Timothy Mount.

Dr. Curtis has maintained an active career as a performer, teacher, accompanist, and church musician in the Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Wilkes-Barre(PA) and southern New Jersey areas. He has served on the music faculties of Emerson College, Northeastern University, Northampton Area Community College, and Misericordia University. He has been a clinician for numerous high school choral festivals and has published scholarly articles on the music of Felix Mendelssohn, J. S. Bach, Franz Schubert, and Christoph Graupner. He has served as music director for numerous high school, college, and community musical theater productions including Godspell, Pippin, Oklahoma!, The Fantasticks, and Anything Goes as well as Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance.

Dr. Curtis currently resides in Saranac Lake, New York. He teaches private piano, harpsichord, and organ lessons and performs frequently as a soloist and with his wife, Judy.