Karyn is a master singing teacher and vocal coach that focuses on vocal technique with the student as well as audition prep. She is also known as a “song selection expert” and hand selects song pieces that enhance the student’s voice, personality, and type. She helps singers with their “unique artist sound". Karyn also works with the student on artist development. Karyn has been behind the table at Unifieds, live auditions for university musical theatre programs in New York and Los Angeles. Karyn is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
@karynoverstreetvocalstudio
This season Karyn has two clients on this coming season of American Idol and The Voice. Karyn Overstreet Vocal Studio has been recognized nationally two years in a row having winners in the YoungArts National Competition for Voice: Singer/Songwriter for 2020 and 2021. Her clients have won a total of 18 National Youth Awards in San Diego and San Diego North County for 2021. Karyn’s clients have broadway national tours, major motion pictures, television, commercials, voice-overs and have signed major record deals. Along with celebrity clients Karyn works with all levels of talent and ages.
Broadway: Les Miserables; Broadway National Tours: Jekyll & Hyde, Barry Manilow's Copacabana. Off-Broadway: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, The New Moon, Strike Up The Band at City Center Encores, Tip-Toes at Carnegie Hall. and well as various leads throughout the Regional Theatre scene. Karyn was the TV host for New York’s Metro Guide Channel: The Red Head Review, and was featured in the film Temptation starring Zoe Saldana, Adam Pascal, Alice Ripley. San Diego audiences will remember Karyn in Moonlight production’s record breaking Mamma Mia as Rosie, Old Globe’s Production of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, San Diego Musical Theatre's Production of 9 To 5 as Dora Lee and, the longest running musical in San Diego history: the 80’s musical journey of Mixtape with Lambs Players.
Sydney Forest Taylor
Artist Development Coach | Los Angeles Representative
Sydney has a degree in musical theater from Cal State Fullerton. While primarily being a performer, she found a deeper love for directing large scale children’s musical theater productions in San Diego coordinating cast and crews and parent teams of productions (like Annie, Cinderella, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Tom Sawyer, etc). Yet, her post-college interests took a different turn.
In her growth, Sydney began discovering that songwriting was more of a passion than theater and moved to Los Angeles to build a career in the music business. She became an A&R executive for a LA based boutique music publisher and represented catalogs such as Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, Professor Longhair… and also signed, developed, and worked with new and up and coming artists. She was the founder of “Monday Night Music Club”, a monthly showcase for new talent hosted at Genghis Cohen in Hollywood, and travelled to music conferences, speaking on panels, listening to pitches, and discovering new talent. This paved the way for her own songwriting publishing deal.
Sydney was signed to Disney Music Publishing as an artist and songwriter and began writing for film and tv projects. One of her favorite first projects were songs that were placed in Studio Ghibli/Hayao Miyazaki’s first (American) Disney release in the 1998 version of ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ as she co-wrote the songs and sang “I’m Gonna Fly” and “Soaring” with her soon to be husband, JT, now married 26 years. This season of life also led to roles in WB shows like “Popular” (Ryan Murphy), session singing on national commercials for Burger King and Bob Evans, and a duet with Graham Nash on his solo album “Songs for Survivors”.
Outside of the music business, Sydney has been a part of a “think tank” pitching reality show at NBC/Universal, led a national marketing team and social media campaign promoting movies like Dolphin Tale and 42 to the homeschool community for Grace Hill Media/WB.
Through the years, Sydney has been a private vocal, piano, songwriting coach, and music career consultant for aspiring artists and songwriters. She is very familiar with the ABRSM program of testing and performance grades. She also works with students in intensive college prep programs getting into schools like U of Michigan, Carnegie-Mellon, and NYU.
An additional fun fact, her mother, Gayla Peevey, sang the original version of the Christmas classic “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas” as a 10 year old in 1953 and debuted it on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Most importantly, Sydney has a heart for artist development and deep appreciation for every student’s individuality, young and old. Her joy is to really listen to what a student is seeking, when they take the leap to sign up for coaching, and intuitively unlock new levels of growth to become a partner in their dreams and goals.