Joan Lader, MA

“Joan Lader keeps Broadway in Tune.” So read the headline on the front page of The New York Times Arts and Leisure section earlier this year over an extensive profile of her long and distinguished career in American music theater.

Ms. Lader has spent more than 40 years providing vocal training and rehabilitation for professional voice users.  This was commemorated in June 2016 when she was awarded a Tony Award for “Excellence in the Theater, the American theater’s highest honor. She received further recognition in  2023 when she was named an “Unsung Hero” by the American Theatre Wing.

Ms. Lader received a BFA from Penn State University in Theatre Arts with a Minor in Music.  Trained as a Master’s level speech pathologist, she specializes in working with singers and actors, and in collaboration with New York’s top otolaryngologists, rehabilitation of injured voices.  Her extensive practice includes leading actors and singers from Broadway, film, opera, R&B, rap, rock and pop.

Ms. Lader is a certified Master Teacher of the Estill Voice Training System, is a member of   NATS, NYSTA, VASTA, and has extensive training in the Alexander Technique, as well as Fitzmaurice Voice Work and the work of Arthur Lessac.

She has given Master Classes at universities and summer programs throughout the country including just last April, a series of Master Classes for both students and faculty at the Peabody Institute, one of the country’s most prestigious music conservatories. She has also taught at Anne Reinking’s Broadway Theater Project, The Musical Theatre Lab at Vineyard Arts Project, and Empower Voices Now in New York City. She has been a consultant at NYU’s The New Studio and is on the advisory board of the Voice Foundation and the Manhattan School of Music.  Five years ago, Ms. Lader gave the keynote address at the Northwest Voice Conference on the Art and Science of the Performing Voice. She was recently the guest speaker at The Westminster Choir College, and in 2021 she spoke at the Polish Voice Symposium as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of Poland’s Center for Voice Studies. She has contributed numerous articles to many educational and professional books on various aspects of vocal production and care of the professional voice, as well as exercises for voice therapy.  Ms. Lader was also recently the featured guest on a NATS chat that was broadcast nationally. She is particularly proud to be a Master Teacher with the National Young Arts Foundation, whose participants so often become the stars of tomorrow.