MEET THE ARTIST

Edrie Means Weekly

Edrie Means Weekly, “rock star of vocal crossover” (The Cultural Feed), is an internationally recognized expert in training singers in all vocal styles and an active professional singer. She is the recipient of the 2021 Van Lawrence Fellowship Award. Edrie was a Master Teacher for the NATS Intern Program in 2013 and is the Co-Founder of the Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) Vocal Pedagogy Institute. Edrie has presented numerous papers, countless workshops, and masterclasses at national and international conferences. She regularly presents at the Voice Foundation
Symposium, NATS National Conference, Pan-American Vocology Association, the Southeastern Theatre Conference, Mid-Atlantic NATS, Northwestern NATS, and universities throughout The United States. She serves as a peer editor for various professional journals and publishers. As a leading researcher in functional voice training and healthy vocal production, she has authored research publications in The Journal of Voice regarding the teaching of the Broadway voice. Edrie’s first publication in the The Journal of Voice (2003), led to establishing the Shenandoah University’s CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute. She is a contributing author for four books; Teaching Singing in the 21st Century, The Vocal Athlete (second edition), The Voice Teacher’s Cookbook: Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing, and Training Contemporary Commercial Singers. Edrie is on the Advisory Boards for the NATS National Musical Theatre Competition and NATS National Student Auditions, the Voice Foundation, the Pan American Vocology Association, and the Musical Theatre Educator’s Association. Edrie is the biological daughter of The King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin.

Her students can be heard on Grammy Award recordings, on Broadway, Off-Broadway, National and International Tours, Regional Theatre, TV(including The Voice, American Idol, Kidz Star USA), Recordings, Cruise Ships, Theme Parks, Films, NYC, and Regional Cabaret Venues, Concert Halls and Opera Houses worldwide.

Edrie has been in demand as a contemporary music specialist. She has sung lead roles in the world premieres of works by Philip Glass, Dominick Argento, Jacob Druckman, and in Kaballah by Stewart Wallace, in which the role of Binah was written for her and a CD recording made with Koch Records. NPR broadcast Dominick Argento’s The Dream of Valentino, in which she created the role
of Jean Aker and PBS broadcast Philip Glass’ The Making of The Representative of Planet 8, in which she created the role of Klin. Nationally and internationally, she has appeared in leading roles
with the Houston Grand Opera, Washington Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Cleveland Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Mid-Michigan, Opera Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh Playhouse, and the State
Opera of Cairo, Egypt. Her many performances have been broadcast internationally on NPR and PBS. She was last seen nationally and internationally on TV in the role of Suzy in the opera La Rondine directed by Marta Domingo which was released on DVD by Decca.

In addition to her operatic roles, she has sung extensively in leading roles of musical and operetta production, including Follies, My Fair Lady, Carousel, The King and I, West Side Story, Show Boat, The Sound of Music, The Merry Widow, and Zorba. Recitals in the United States and Canada include a New York City debut in the New York Festival of Songs Series with pianist Michael Barrett and Guest artist with symphony orchestras of Houston, Cleveland, Corpus Christi, Victoria, and the National Symphony. Edrie was the standby for Patti LuPone in the title role of Regina at the Kennedy Center and was a member of the Sondheim production of Follies starring Bernadette Peters. She has been the standby for Broadway stars Elaine Paige, Linda Lavin, and Terry White. She returned recently to the Kennedy Center in My Fair Lady with Jonathan Pryce and Cloris Leachman.