Meet Mike Ruckles | Voice teacher and Singing Voice Specialist (SVS)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Ruckles and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I taught at the University of Northern Colorado for eight years in their musical theatre department and our students would graduate and move to NYC with the dream of working on Broadway. When I made occasional trips to NYC, I’d teach our alumni and their friends who lived there, and slowly began to build word-of-mouth about my work. At the same time, I was completing my masters’ degree at UNCO and I knew that I had become valuable to their program. And yet it seemed that no one there was willing to pull the trigger on moving me into a tenure-track professorship. They had no incentive to do so really. So one day, with my wife’s blessing, I walked into my boss’s office and put it all on the line. “If you’re not going to make me a tenure track professor, I’m moving to NYC.” And my boss looked at me and said: “You would do SO well in NYC!” So I came home that night and said “Honey, we’re moving to New York!”
Fortunately, moving from the security of academia to owning my own small business was not a massive risk as I knew that I already had a client base established in NYC to build from. I wanted to create a voice studio where the vibe was fully artist-centered. So often I encounter voice studios that exist primarily to glorify the owner/teacher but the actual clients and their success/progress are secondary in a lot of ways. It feels very cringey to me and so I’m always happy when an artist thanks me because they feel that I am personally invested in their growth.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I teach a wonderfully eclectic mix of singers from my midtown NYC studio… Grammy, Tony, and Oscar winners, opera singers and punk singers, rappers and Fortune 500 execs. I’m so grateful for the variety as it keeps me on my toes and flexible as a teacher. I truly do jump out of bed every morning because I love what I do… each artist I work with is uniquely different (physically, neurologically, vocally, and in personality) and so no two can/should be taught the same way. That makes every individual a fascinating puzzle to be solved… what imbalances or asymmetries are standing in their way, and how can I guide them into equilibrium and set the instrument free? I’m always hungry for more tools to offer, more solutions to a vocal issue, the latest research that informs what I do in the moment.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
NYC excels at two things: great food and great performances. I know it’s cliche now to say you’re a foodie, but I love to collect unique and inspiring culinary experiences, so I would definitely take them to a favorite restaurant (maybe Babbo or Blue Hill) and take in some incredible Broadway theatre or a concert. I live in constant FOMO as there are too many amazing performances in this city and not enough time to take them all in.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I always give credit to my college professor Dr. Melissa Malde because she was the first voice teacher to come along and say: “Look, just because a singer’s instrument is their body doesn’t mean that learning to be a great singer has to be a mystical process or grasping in the dark. Real progress can be made quickly and efficiently if you know understanding what’s going on in there.” That was my first taste of functional voice training and it was then that I knew I was really headed toward teaching, not performance per se.

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Website: www.mikeruckles.com

Instagram: @RucklesVoice

Twitter: @RucklesVoice

Facebook: @RucklesVoice

Image Credits
(LION KING photo: Bradley Gibson as Simba) (KING KONG photo: Christiani Pitts as Anne Darrow) (Jefferson Mays with Tony award for A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER) (WICKED photo: Lissa DeGuzman as Elphaba) (MISS SAIGON photo: Emily Bautista as Kim and Anthony Festa as Chris)