Educational Experiences

I earned my B.A. in Music Performance and Music Education at California State University, Chico. During my years at CSUC, I participated on a performance-based scholarship as a student and soprano soloist in the college's outstanding Opera Workshop Program directed by San Francisco Opera's leading soprano, Gwen Curatillo. As a member of the CSUC opera-training program, I had the opportunity of working with guest artists and theater professionals as a featured performer in numerous fully produced operas and as an assistant director, conductor and costume and set design assistant. 

Post graduate vocal studies include pedagogical work with soprano Jacqueline Victorino, tenor Joseph Frank (Metropolitan Opera), and coloratura soprano Erie Mills (Metropolitan Opera), coaching and diction studies with Marcie Stapp (San Francisco Conservatory) and Broadway star Amanda Flynn in New York. and master classes with Wendy Hillhouse (San Francisco Conservatory) and internationally known baritone, William Parker.

Awards include the Twin Cities Young Artist Award, the Chico Symphony Prize, the1993 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Young Artist Award and being accepted as a finalist in the 1996 Carmel Young Artist Vocal Competition.

Operatic roles include Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Adele in Der Fledermaus, Pamina in Die Zauberflote, Rosaline in “Love’s Labors Lost“ (premier performance), Anne in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance and Micaëla in Carmen with internationally known tenor Keith Purdy. As an undergraduate, I was also a featured student soloist in numerous oratorios and chamber works with the Chico Symphony Orchestra, CSUC Chamber ensembles and other regional symphonies. As a post graduate, I appeared frequently as a soprano soloist with many regional symphonies including the Camellia Symphony, Lodi Symphony, Chico Symphony, Paradise Symphony and Auburn Symphony Orchestras. As a concert artist, I performed as a featured soloist with the Harrington String Quartet, regional chamber ensembles and performed and recorded with L.A. jazz flutist Steve Fowler and premiered works by Joaquin Rodrigo, Jay Sydeman, Howard Hersh, Russell Burnham, Alfred Loffler and Barbara Powers. 

Specializing in art song for voice and classical guitar, I enjoyed a twenty year professional career as a concert artist with the Vernier Duo. The duo garnered critical acclaim for the performances of Mr. Vernier's arrangements for classical guitar and voice and were featured artists on tour and in local concert series such as Crocker Art Museum, Old First Church, Twin Cities Concert Association, the Sacramento and Carmel Guitar Society. A retrospective of some of the duos recorded work continues to be actively viewed on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/user/SegoviaJay/videos

After being invited in 2010 to view the duo's Rodrigo Birthday Celebration Concert video, Joaquin Rodrigo's daughter Cecilia Rodrigo praised the duo's performance of her father's Spanish folk songs by stating, "We have seen and heard the performance of Michelle Coder  that you sent to us.  We have, in fact, been in contact by letter with her in the past and she certainly is an excellent singer.  Her pronunciation and diction are very good also so she can perform for any international audience with excellent results.  We wish you great success with these lovely Rodrigo songs."

In 2000, I establish a private music studio at Music & More Arts Academy in Auburn. I taught voice, piano and co-founded the Auburn Light Opera, Auburn Women’s Theater Troupe, the Auburn Children’s Chorus and the award winning show choir, The Swingin’ Sweethearts.

I am also the Artistic Director, set and costume designer, playwright and Composer In Residence for Music & More Children's Theater at Music & More Performing and Visual Arts Center in Auburn. I have produced, directed and designed over one-hundred adult and children’s productions in association with Music & More Arts Academy and received a SARTA Elly nominations for Best Director (Pirates of Penzance) and Best Set Design for my production of Disney's Broadway Musical Beauty and the Beast. Favorite productions I have directed include Mozart’s Cosi fan tutti, Pirates of Penzance, Into the Woods, Quilters, A My Name is Alice, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Addams Family, James and the Giant Peach, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, Seussical, How to Train Your Dragon, among others.

Writing and composing are two of my great passions. I've published  and produced a musical adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s Thumbelina, written in collaboration with composer Gerald Rheault (premiered by the Sacramento Theater Company (STC) Young Professionals Conservatory in 2010), as well as an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, with additional music by Ramana Ramayanam which was the winner of the 2004 Sacramento Area Regional Theater Alliance (SARTA) Elly award for best adapted script. I was also commissioned to write and produce an original theatrical adaptation of the novel Chasing Moonshine by Raymond L.F. Johnson with James Van Eaton and am currently revising my adaptation of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice.

I've been teaching at Sierra Community College since 2005. As a professor in the Music Department, I am deeply committed to helping and inspiring my students as well as playing an active role in shared governance. I have been honored to participate at Sierra College as a member of two Accreditation Committees, the Sierra College Leadership Institute, the Student Success Committee, as Project Manager for Arts and Innovation Day and as a Faculty Lead for TEDx Youth at the NCC campus. I am currently serving as a member of the Faculty Professional Development Committee.

A teacher member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), California Music Teachers Association (CMTA) and The National Association for Music Education (MENC), I enjoy offering my services as a vocal adjudicator. I also hold dual teaching credentials, Level I Orff Schulwerk Certification and a M.S. in Special Education. My continued post-graduate research focuses on differentiated music and art curriculum development, the positive effects of music on behavior and learning and decolonization of classical music curriculum.

I’m very proud of students who have enjoyed success in local music programs and community theater, pursued careers as solo artists and garnered scholarships to continue studies in music and theater at educational institutions such as UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Pepperdine University, San Francisco Conservatory, Emerson College, Oxford School of Drama and New York Academy of Performing Arts. I am also thrilled many of the most talented of these students have also chosen to share their love of the Arts as exceptional music instructors, drama teachers and music therapists. 

  Favorite Things To Do

I have the privilege of sharing "stay-at-home" life with my parents and my new fur kid, a red-tri Australian Shepherd named Danny Boy. Over the years, my beloved pack of Aussies Chai Latte, Teddy, Porshe, Bonnie, Sophie and Dundee have prompted me to become a dog sports enthusiast with interests in someday working livestock.

The Pandemic provided the impetus for me to start developing a mini-farm on our three acres. I obtained some chicks this spring and they've grown into twenty-six sweet hens and seven, fat roosters who you will probably hear in my videos. I hope to add goats to our menagerie soon.

Besides caring for my animal friends, I love gardening, hiking, reading and watching movies. I am also a visual artist, set designer, seamstress and costume. I get pretty excited when I find new, historical dress patterns.

I have enjoyed creating art works since I was a young child. My father, aunt and grandmother were/are painters, and were my first teachers. I published a collection of pen & ink drawings in high school and continued to numerous art classes in college, eventually working as a set and costume designer for 30 years. I consider myself a teaching, multimedia artist and am currently finishing an AA degree in Studio Art. Below are some of my recent art projects and one of my father's paintings.