Celia Slattery

Position
Associate Professor
Affiliated Departments

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Celia Slattery is a veteran performer and performing arts educator. As a performer, she has entertained audiences from Boston to Bangkok with her original music and interpretations of jazz and pop standards. In her early career, inspired by the folk tradition and singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Carole King, she toured as a solo acoustic act at coffeehouses and clubs. Later, jazz studies at New England Conservatory with Dominique Eade and Ran Blake introduced her to the Great American Songbook and vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She began to collaborate with some of the finest Boston area musicians with performances at clubs, arts centers and special events. She also had a six-month gig singing nightly at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, often named world’s no. 1 hotel.

Slattery has released three CDs, and Metronome Magazine called her 2014 release, Our Life Together, “a wonderfully crafted album full of soul-stirring performances both musically and vocally.” She has over 30 years of experience as an educator; earned a Level III certificate in Somatic Voicework™ (the LoVetri Method), a state-of-the-art vocal technique for contemporary music; and has taught voice technique and performance skills to hundreds of students in her private studio. Additionally, she has been an adjunct faculty member at Lesley and Salem State universities, and has given master classes in voice technique, vocal health, performance skills, and audition technique at schools and conferences such as New England Conservatory Summer School and the Kennedy School American College Theater Festival.

Career Highlights
  • Voice studies with Dominique Eade, Craig Wick, and Jeanie LoVetri
  • Solo acoustic performances at clubs and coffeehouses including Club Passim (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and the Iron Horse (Northampton, Massachusetts)
  • Toured her one-woman show Moving Target, directed by Bill Castellino with accompanist Mark Shilansky, including shows at the Montreal Theater Festival, First Night Boston, and the Speakeasy Stage
  • Held her 2008 CD release for Cast of Characters at Scullers Jazz Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her 2001 CD release for Movin' on at Johnny D's Uptown Lounge in Somerville, Massachusetts
  • Performed regular shows at Ryles Jazz Club from 2012 through 2019
  • Performances as part of Celia Slattery and Friends with Mark Shilansky, Joe Mulholland, Jane Potter, Tim Ray, and Greg Holt, among many others
  • Performances at venues including clubs, arts centers, and special events such as Harvard and Wellesley universities, Four Seasons and Copley Plaza hotels, the Center for Arts in Natick, Summer and Atlantic concert series, and Arts on the Arcade, among others
Awards
  • Grant recipient from the Puffin Foundation and Cultural Council Local Arts Council 
  • Recipient of the ASCAP Plus Awards
  • Recipient of an Honorable Mention in the 17th annual Billboard Songwriting Contest
Education
  • M.A. Lesley University
  • B.A. University of Massachusetts
In Their Own Words

I want students to feel empowered with a better understanding of how their voices work and how to practice effectively, so that they can express themselves more freely in their chosen musical style."

My eclectic experience as a singer has given me a practical understanding of the challenges singers face in a variety of different professional settings. That combined with my background in voice training gives me a toolbox I can apply to a broad variety of students. I try to bring out what is unique and special about each individual, within the context of their musical genre and with an eye on their professional goals."