The Petersen Voice studio offers voice lessons, voice classes, and music theory classes in Boston, Massachusetts as well as online via Skype, and Zoom. Justin teaches according to a functional pedagogy which aims to improve vocal range, stamina, endurance, flexibility, and most importantly: healthy singing.
Justin received his M.M. in Opera at the University of Kansas, and his Bachelor of Music degree at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa. His performance career includes performances with the Boston Pops in a concert performance of Ragtime, as well as performances with Sarah Brightman in her Christmas Symphony Concert. His opera performances include appearances with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Opera North, Sarasota Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera.
He has been on the Voice Faculty of Dean College in Franklin, MA, the New England Conservatory Preparatory Program, and the Stoneham Theatre. Justin is the Lead Vocal Coach for My College Audition, where he coaches students on all aspects of musical audition preparation for the competitive college audition process. Because he believes strongly in musical literacy, he was recently certified as a music theory teacher with the Ultimate Music Theory Certified Teacher program.
His studio in Boston consists of actors, dancers, and singers of opera, oratorio, musical theater, pop, and rock. Students are also of many ages, but he tends to work mostly with adult and high school-aged singers.
Justin is also a prolific writer on historic and contemporary voice pedagogy and training. He writes a Substack entitled A Voice Teacher’s Chrestomathy which aims to distill and collect some of the best writings on voice training alongside practical application.
Justin has a deep passion for working with damaged voices and helping to bring them back to health. He actively works with Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) in Boston, facilitating cross-functional dialogue between singers, teachers, and voice therapists.
His pedagogical influences can be found largely in the work and writings of Pierfrancesco Tosi, Giambattista Mancini, Manuel Garcia II, David Clark Taylor, Edgar Herbert-Caesari, Francesco Lamperti, Herbert Witherspoon, David Alva Clippinger, Frederick Husler and Yvonne Rodd-Marling, Cornelius L. Reid, Oren Brown, Seth Riggs, Edward Foreman, Jeannette LoVetri, Peter T. Harrison, Stephen W. Smith, William Westney, Kenneth Bozeman, and Seymour Bernstein.