When I walked into Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller Studios, I stood in awe as I turned in a circle to view the host of photos, accolades and academic accomplishments covering the walls. With a smile that lit up the room, Lisa said, “My parents love to scrapbook on my walls.”
This was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting this highly accomplished singer, actor and voice teacher based in St. George, who has made significant contributions to performing arts as well as the broader community. Lisa’s jaw-dropping career highlights include a Tony Award for her role as Mimi, in Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway production of Puccini’s “La Boheme.” She is also a Grammy Award nominee for Best Opera Recording for her performance in John Musto’s, “Volpone.”
Born in Southern California, Lisa moved with her parents first to Manhattan, New York, and then to six different states and Canada, where her matchless talent blossomed as a young child. Her mother worked as a Suzuki piano teacher by day and studied at Julliard with the head of the piano department at night. Lisa’s father was a surgeon with a beautiful baritone voice who played the violin. Because of her parents’ accomplishments, Lisa grew up performing with her family on a continual basis, which turned singing into an assumed lifestyle.
Lisa’s mother raised her on the philosophies from the book, “Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach,” by Shinichi Suzuki, in which Suzuki establishes his case for early childhood education and the high potential of every human being—not just those who are seemingly gifted. Lisa commented, “One of Suzuki’s greatest concepts was that in the same way a child learns a language, they can learn anything.”
Most importantly, Lisa’s mother raised her with an enduring, positive, up-beat spirit with an attitude of this-is-just-what-we-do, and no fear associated with singing in any way. Lisa stated, “My mom was fearless and believed in going for the best mentors, and I remember her saying, ‘Who did Pavarotti train with? That is who we need to find for you.’” And find her she did!
When Lisa won the Tony Award under the tutelage of Pavarotti’s coach, Marlena Malas of the Juilliard School & Curtis Institute, her performance was a huge turning point for opera singers to become triple threats—not only as fantastic vocalists and linguists—but also as healthy, fit performers who were believable in their roles and who could also act. Lisa’s vision ever since has been to nurture the optimal vocal athlete based on fitness and vocal excellence with the entire body trained as an instrument.
Lisa’s own daughters were her first guinea pigs, performing for judges at Dixie’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent, as well as on the Tuacahn stage. So, when kids from the community stream into Lisa’s studios, she trains them as if they were her own, helping them to achieve their wildest dreams, while helping them look their best, feel their best and perform their best, vocally and as actors. Lisa Seegmiller Studios is the Cross-Fit of vocal schools as she prepares her students for community theater auditions, local competitions and festivals, top universities and conservatories, and global careers, while nurturing them to excel through her ground-breaking technical approach.
This picture throws us back to an adorable scene in Lisa’s own childhood, when she sat as a confident 8-year-old with her curly red hair, playing the soundtrack of “Annie” loudly in her bedroom and singing out her window to the neighbors, hoping they would think she was the real Annie.
Lisa’s soaring goals for training children are to cross-train them in classical, musical theater and pop techniques. She wants her so-called “child opera singers” to be the best in the world. Her own tried and true developmental methods fix notoriously poor techniques taught and demonstrated on stages across the globe, with the amusing attitude of “you practice only on the days that you eat”—but she also believes students should take Sundays off. One of Lisa’s teaching methods is to “think of singing as dancing with your face,” which is Lisa’s specific approach of teaching technical form, just as you would train a dancer.
“One of Suzuki’s greatest concepts was that in the same way a child learns a language, they can learn anything.”