Voice & Piano Instructors
Seth Allen is extremely excited to join the Summit Music Center team! Seth holds a bachelors in vocal performance from Ball State University and is currently working on his masters in vocal performance at the Hartt School. Seth is an avid lover of all things music. When not singing Seth composes film scores, arranges, or plays percussion, bass, and piano in non-classical settings. Seth has performed almost all styles of music and is comfortable teaching anything from hard rock to classical voice. Seth’s philosophy is to teach a foundational technique and adapt that technique to fit the style that you’re singing or playing. Learning to sing or play this way makes you a very versatile singer and musician because you understand your instrument and how to manipulate it to your needs. Seth would love to have you in his studio and would love to help you grow your instrument, whatever instrument that may be!
Mark Sumner is a musician currently based out of Middletown, CT. He attended Western Connecticut State University where he majored in Musical Theatre. At WCSU, Mark starred in several productions, most notably as Ché in Evita. He was the recipient of the Richard Maltby Jr. Musical Theatre Award for Region 1 of the Kennedy Center College Theatre Festival and went on to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Although Mark is passionate about musical theatre, he has a strong background in pop/rock and specifically classic rock. Since the pandemic, Mark has started teaching voice, working on some small musical projects with friends, and playing with local bands. Mark hopes to provide a strong basis of vocal technique and a fun, positive environment of support and growth.
Dana Lauren is a vocalist/pianist with a Bachelors Degree from Berklee College of Music. She is also an alumni of the New England Conservatory of Music. Dana has toured and recorded with legendary Grammy Award winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, singing at some of the nations most famed jazz venues. Her 2008 album release “Stairway to the Stars”(featuring and produced by Sandoval), hit the top of the jazz charts and received rave reviews from some of the most prestigious jazz publications in the country. Her second album release in 2010 “It’s You or No One”, was self produced and features Christian McBride on bass. That same year, Dana was selected as a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition.
She is an accomplished classical pianist and has extensive experience in private vocal and piano instruction. Through her formal education and performance experience, Dana has developed into a versatile teaching artist with experience coaching across various genres of music including jazz, classical, musical theater and pop. She also works with students on composition and music business strategies.
Dana is currently signed to Sapphire Records and is working on an EP of original music.
Mezzo-Soprano Genevieve Clements has been an active performer since the age of 4. Throughout her childhood, Genny played the piano, baritone horn, and sang in local choirs and musical theatre productions, often receiving solos and leads. When it came time to decide on plans after high school, she decided to study classical voice at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, CT. During her four years at Hartt, Genny studied voice with Cherie Caluda and Kyle Swann and performed with Hartt Opera Theatre.
During the fall of her junior year, Genny continued her studies in Milan, Italy, and performed with professional choirs in the area. While in Milan, she also realized her love of 20thand 21st Century music for the voice, especially contemporary opera and chamber music. Since graduating summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Music in Classical Vocal Performance, Genny has developed her proficiency and passion for teaching both voice and piano to aspiring musicians of all ages and skill levels. She loves helping people make and nurture a connection with music of all kinds. Genny sings with the Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, CT and is an active performer and recitalist around the Hartford area.
Michelle Li is a dynamic flutist and educator based in Hartford. Connecticut. As a performer,
Michelle made her orchestral debut in 2016 with the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra asa winner of the annual concerto competition. Michelle is especially interested in contemporary
music, and has premiered several new works by award-winning composers. She has presented
extended technique workshops at the 2019 International Flute Symposium at West Virginia
University and was a featured performer for “Flutes on Fire,” a contemporary program in the 2020
Flute Society of Washington’s Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention. Most recently, Michelle performed for
the 2022 SCI Online National Conference with pianist Dr. Michael McAndrew as founding members
of the chamber group DuoMotive.
As an educator, Michelle is enthusiastic, encouraging, and adaptable. She has served as a Hartford school clinician, teaching flute to beginner band students. Michelle has also been an adjudicator for the Florida Flute Association and the West Virginia Music Educators Association. At the Hartt School, Michelle served as Co-Director of the Stratosphere Flute Choir, the university’s premier flute choir. In addition to flute, Michelle teaches beginner piano.
Michelle recently completed an Artist Diploma in Flute Performance at the Hartt School, graduating
summa cum laude. She received a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from West Virginia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Binghamton University with Highest Honors. Michelle also received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Creative Writing from
Binghamton University. Past instructors include Janet Arms, Nina Assimakopoulos, Angela
McBrearty, and Georgetta Maiolo.
Kelly English is a singer/songwriter from Bolton, Connecticut, and a Summit alumnus! A finalist in the 2015 NewSong Songwriting Contest, North America’s premier performance and songwriting competition, Kelly traveled to Asheville to compete at the Lake Eden Arts Festival. She also took home 1st place at the Eventide Songwriting Contest, of which Meghan Trainor is a past winner.
Kelly graduated from Berklee College of Music where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree of Music in Music Business and Songwriting.
As a performer, Kelly has been playing solo acoustic music across New England. She has opened for acts including Among the Acres, NewSong Contest winner Rachael Kilgour, Grammy-award winning member of “In Living Colour” Corey Glover, and many others.
Kelly is a brand new instructor, with more than 10 years of songwriting experience and a lifelong love of writing lyrics.
Her debut album “City Limits” came out on October 6, 2017, mixed and produced by Gar Ragland (Newsong Recordings, Citizen Vinyl). Kelly’s sophomore EP, “The Savannah Theory”, comes out in 2020.
Lauded as a “musical polymath” by the New London Day, Terrence B. Fay has been a professional trombonist in Connecticut for over 20 years. He is currently principal trombonist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater of Connecticut, and assistant principal trombonist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Ridgefield, Waterbury, Wallingford, Norwalk, and Greater Bridgeport Symphonies, among others. Mr. Fay is also an active tenor vocalist. He has been a soloist most recently with the Eastern Connecticut and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, as well as Con Brio Choral Society, Capella Cantorum, and the Greater Middletown Chorale. He made his operatic debut in 2017 as Spoletta in Connecticut Lyric Opera’s production of Puccini’s Tosca. He is currently a member of the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Norwalk, CT. Mr. Fay is currently on the faculty of Southern Connecticut State University, and the Universities of Bridgeport and New Haven, while also teaching at Summit Studios in Manchester and in the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra Music Mentor Program.