SVS PELHAM FACULTY
Joe SaNTANIELLO- FOUNDER AND VOICE TEACHER
Joe Santaniello Jr is a multidisciplinary educator, master voice teacher, director, music director, designer, and the Founder of Santaniello Vocal Studios, as well as President and Artistic Director of Rising Stars Performing Arts. Known for an exacting eye for detail and a deeply individualized approach to training, Santaniello has staged more than 100 full theatrical productions throughout his career while building programs that develop young artists across voice, acting, musicianship, movement, and performance.
At the center of his work is the human voice. Santaniello prides himself on being a highly technical teacher capable of working at an advanced level with both contemporary musical theatre singers and classical vocalists. His teaching emphasizes healthy, efficient production, stylistic clarity, musicianship, expressive freedom, and a deep understanding of the specific technical demands of each singer and repertoire.
His students have gone on to major national and international opportunities, including national competitions, the Jimmy Awards, national tours, film work, and operatic performances internationally. Students from his studio and programs have continued their training at leading conservatories and universities including The Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Shenandoah Conservatory, The Hartt School, New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Emerson College, and other competitive collegiate programs.
Santaniello’s work extends far beyond the private voice studio. A true multidisciplinary educator, he has developed and taught coursework in Musical Theatre History, Voice & Speech, Lyrical Diction, Vocal Technique and Anatomy, musicianship, audition preparation, and performance. He has also costumed multiple RSPA productions, contributed to scenic and set design, directed and music directed productions, and helped shape the visual, musical, and dramatic worlds in which his students perform. That breadth of experience directly informs his teaching philosophy. Santaniello believes that a singer cannot be separated from the actor, musician, mover, storyteller, or human being producing the sound. His “Quadruple Threat” model — Singing, Acting, Dance, and Musicianship — reflects that belief and serves as the foundation of much of his educational programming.
As President and Artistic Director of Rising Stars Performing Arts, Santaniello has developed a comprehensive training environment that spans introductory theatre through advanced pre-professional and college-bound study. Under his leadership, RSPA programming has included fully staged musicals and plays, classical and musical theatre vocal performance, acting, dance, music theory and aural skills, diction, vocal technique, college preparation, original and devised work, workshops, intensives, and multi-year pre-professional training.
Across more than 100 full productions, Santaniello has worked in musical theatre, straight theatre, classical repertoire, youth theatre, and pre-professional performance. His approach to directing and production is marked by the same attention to detail that defines his studio teaching: musical precision, clear storytelling, strong visual cohesion, and an insistence that young artists understand not only what they are doing, but why they are doing it.
He also serves as Artistic Director of Summer Arts Intensive Berlin, extending his educational work internationally and providing emerging artists with intensive training and performance opportunities in voice, acting, musicianship, opera, musical theatre, and classical repertoire.
Whether adjusting a vocal registration strategy, refining diction, staging a scene, teaching theatre history, building a costume concept, shaping a production, or preparing a student for a major audition, Santaniello approaches each discipline as part of the same larger goal: creating intelligent, versatile, independent artists. Above all, Santaniello remains deeply committed to the teaching of the human voice. With extensive experience in both classical and musical theatre vocal technique, he is equally at home teaching singers whose goals lie firmly in either discipline. His broad technical background allows him to approach each style on its own terms, giving classical and musical theatre singers the specific tools, language, and technical guidance appropriate to their repertoire and professional goals.
Valeria Girardi Kostner- Voice Teacher
Soprano Valeria Girardi Kostner hails from New Rochelle, N.Y. She began her vocal training at age 15 and quickly began winning competitions only a few years later, including the MacAllister Foundation Awards, Queen’s Opera Competition, Young Patronesses of Opera/Florida Grand Competition. She earned a BA in Theater at Iona University, and went on to become the first-place national winner of the Bel Canto Opera Seminar where she received a full scholarship to study at Northwestern University under the guidance of Georgio Tozzi and Martina Arroyo. During her time there she was invited to study with Mignon Dunn in NYC, and later her longtime teacher, Armen Boyajian. Under their tutelage she acquired a solid technique and learned the fine art of singing. This is exactly what she wants to pass on to her students: guidance on developing a healthy technique which will allow them to achieve a free sound in whatever style they choose.
Highlights of her career have included numerous appearances with New York Grand Opera as a mezzo-soprano. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing the role of Amneris in the triumphal scene of AIDA and returned to sing Zuma in Verdi’s rarely performed opera ALZIRA. Other roles with the company have included Preziosilla in LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, Maddalena in RIGOLETTO, Meg Page in FALSTAFF, Emilia in OTELLO, and Flora in LA TRAVIATA. Described for her portrayal as “an operatic force to reckon with,’ Ms. Girardi sang the complete role of Amneris in AIDA at Central Park under the baton of maestro Vincent La Selva, and was represented in Opera News magazine as a featured artist with the company.
Mrs.Girardi Kostner has performed in both opera and oratorios throughout the US. Other works have included Mrs. Ott in SUSANNAH, Prince Orlofsky in DIE FLEDERMAUS, Mother Marie in DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES, Verdi’s Requiem and Bach’s St. Mathew Passion. After her above triumphs as a mezzo-soprano she changed fach in recent years to become a soprano. She made her company debut as a soprano with New Jersey State Opera singing excerpts of IL TROVATORE, LA TRAVIATA, DON GIOVANNI, TURANDOT, AND ADRIANA LECOUVREUR.
She has been a leave replacement music teacher in the New Rochelle public school system and has prepared students grades 1 thru 5 for their winter concert, taught in neighborhood music schools ages four years to adults at the professional level, and maintains a private studio. She is interested in students who are driven to study and practice, and aims to bring out the best potential in each individual.
Dylan Cao- Voice Teacher
Dylan is an operatic countertenor by day and a tenor belter by night, performing throughout New York City and New England. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre from the University of Southern Maine and currently serves as a staff singer at North Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Most recently, Dylan produced and performed in Snow Angel Cabaret: A Night of Reneé Rapp Music at The Green Room 42 in New York City. He will also appear as the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Cathedral of the Incarnation on Long Island. His regional theatre credits include productions at Ogunquit Playhouse and Maine State Music Theatre.
Dylan is currently offering virtual voice lessons through Santaniello Vocal Studios as he prepares to pursue his master’s degree in Classical Voice.