Build your jazz chops

Getting to Know Jazz Singing

With accomplished jazz singer Abigail Riccards

WHEN: Mondays 5/20, 6/3, 6/10, 6/17 from 7-9pm Eastern

WHERE: On Zoom*

WHAT: 4 classes, 2 hours per class

COST: $239 (about $30/hour)

REGISTRATION: Click here to sign up

*Classes will be recorded for those unable to attend live

About the Workshop

This virtual, live workshop is designed to give classical and cabaret singers a concrete understanding of how to perform in the jazz idiom:

I. Understanding the “conversational” approach

II. The daunting world of straight tone

III. Strike up the band

IV. Sing with style

V. Approaching improvisation

VI. Repertoire


About Abigail

Abigail Riccards has garnered much attention from the jazz community for her effortless swing, heartbreaking tone, and personalized approach to lyrics. Abigail's inimitable approach to the Great American Songbook has made her one of the most celebrated jazz vocalists of her generation. 


Performing in Chicago since 2011, Abigail has quickly established herself as one of the rising vocalists on the scene. She has performed at many of the city's top jazz clubs with some of Chicago's most respected musicians, headlining at venues such as the Green Mill, the Jazz Showcase, Katerina's, and Andy's Jazz Club. 

Prior to her move to the windy city, Abigail was an active artist in New York's jazz scene. She has repeatedly performed at many of the most treasured venues in NYC, including being a frequent favorite at Birdland, the Jazz Standard, Smoke, Smalls, the Kitano, Sweet Rhythm, and 55Bar. Abigail has also collaborated with many of the best jazz musicians in the world including Michael Kanan, Peter Bernstein, David Berkman, Mulgrew Miller, Spike Wilner, Neal Miner, Jay Leonhart, Steve LaSpina, Lee Hudson, Tony Romano, Brad Shepik, Matt Wilson, Bill Goodwin, Rick Montalbano, Elliot Zigmund, Joel Frahm, Adam Kolker, and Ron Horton.

In 2000, Abigail was selected to participate in the Jazz in July workshop at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She also competed in the 2006 Fish Middleton Competition, where she was a semi-finalist. In 2004, Abigail was selected to be a semi-finalist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, where she competed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C for judges such as Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau, Jimmy Scott and Dee Dee Bridgewater. 

Since earning her Master's Degree, Abigail has also become an active music educator. She teaches privately and conducts many college workshops. Recently, she has conducted vocal jazz workshops at Hunter College and Clark University. Abigail was also selected as a collaborator for David Berkman's The Jazz Singer's Guidebook: A Course in Jazz Harmony and Scat Singing for the Serious Jazz Vocalist on which she recorded the vocal examples for the accompanying CD. Abigail is also a licensed Music Together instructor and brings her knowledge of cognitive musical development to the forefront of her teaching approach, an approach that effectively merges her extensive performance experience and her sensitivity to different students and learning approaches. 

  • "Dana has the perspective, intelligence, and boldness to be a real game-changer. She can help empower you to change your game—the way you sing and plan your own path—but she can also empower the entire singing community to view the art and business of singing in a positive, productive way moving forward…She could change the entire system."

    —W. STEPHEN SMITH
    Author, The Naked Voice
    Voice Faculty, Northwestern University

  • "Multiple students approached me to express that Dana’s lecture imparted some of the most valuable information they have received during their time at NEC. Perhaps most impressive was the quantity and clarity of information that Dana managed to impart in just an hour. Students left the lecture feeling enlightened and empowered with clear steps they could take to build their careers."

    —EMILY SIAR
    Vocal Pedagogy Guest Speaker Series, New England Conservatory

  • "Dana offered a wealth of practical advice for singers, other musicians, and students of theater and fine arts, encouraging them to create their own opportunities and discover unique personal ways to pursue a fulfilling and financially viable career. Her presentation was both pragmatic and motivational for students grappling with the practicalities of life beyond college."

    —VALERIE MACPHAIL
    Assistant Director of the PSOM
    Associate Professor of Voice, Converse College

More about Dana

Founder and CEO of The Empowered Musician, Dr. Dana Lynne Varga brings extensive experience as a successful entrepreneur, artistic director, performer, voice teacher, lecturer and writer to her life's work of empowering classical musicians. A graduate of two intensive coach training courses through Graydin Coaching, Dana draws on her breadth of experience and deep industry knowledge to help musicians find and embrace their own authentic career path.

In addition to maintaining a full private voice studio for over 15 years, Dana served for seven years on the voice and opera faculty at the BU Tanglewood Institute, two years on the full-time voice faculty at UMass Amherst, and two years on the voice faculty at the New England Conservatory Prep school. Dr. Varga currently serves on the voice faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She is also Founder and Co-Artistic Director of MassOpera.

Dana regularly performs a wide variety of repertoire on the opera and concert stages. Recently she made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Mid-America Productions. Dana’s 2019 appearance as Pallas Athene in Gluck’s rarely heard Paride ed Elena with Odyssey Opera garnered critical acclaim. Other notable engagements include Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with The Cantata Singers, Beethoven’s 9th with the Wellesley Symphony and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Coro Allegro. Favorite roles performed include Musetta/La bohème, Fiordiligi/Così fan tutte, Anna Maurrant/Street Scene, Rosalinda/Die Fledermaus, Micaëla/Carmen, Hanna Glawari/The Merry Widow, and the title role in Alcina.

Dana won the Second Place American Prize for Art Song and Oratorio in 2019 and was the First Place Winner of the professional division of the national Classical Singer Competition in 2016. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree in Vocal Performance from Boston University, the MM in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory, and a BM in Vocal Performance from UMass Amherst.

Pedagogical Approach & Training

In the studio, Dana focuses on tailoring instruction for each individual, freeing the voice using a combination of vocal function exercises, overall technique work and body tension release. She has been greatly influenced by the works of major pedagogues of the bel canto school, including Garcia, Vaccai and Marchesi, as well as the philosophies of W. Stephen Smith, author of The Naked Voice.

Dana’s experience as a voice teacher ranges from young kids to regularly-working professional adult opera singers, and everything in between.

She has enjoyed extensive additional pedagogy training through participation in the following programs: Acoustic Vocal Pedagogy, The Naked Voice Institute (parts 1 and 2) and the Aspen Music Center Vocal Pedagogy Summit.