A Buoyant Legacy

Leaving a legacy of sonic excellence in its path, one local voice studio not only bears its unique stamp of buoyancy in its aesthetic but in honoring the work of its founder through transcendent music education. And one year into its establishment, Effervescent Voice Academy is doing its creator proud — one uplifting singing lesson at a time.

Effervescent Voice Academy CEO & Founder Amy Morrison

Begun in 2023, the studio was the brainchild of local vocal music educator, instrumentalist and performer Amy Morrison, who passed away late last summer. Her family and staff have continued her mission in her honor, developing singers in a nurturing, supportive environment.

“Amy had been teaching private voice really since she graduated from college herself, and had done it in the college setting and also in home studio settings,” said her husband, Matt Morrison, who continues to lend his time in managing the academy’s operations. “Really it was during COVID that everyone had to figure out new ways of doing everything, and teaching online lessons was something she had never done.”

This exploration led Amy to a group called the Speakeasy Cooperative, a California-based organization focused on developing music educators into proprietors of their own studio businesses. It was here that Amy began to connect with fellow teachers who were engaging multi-teacher voice studios in a private setting.

“Obviously Amy dealt with a 10-year cancer diagnosis with the last five of that being stage four,” her husband said. “She felt some urgency really in being able to do as much equipping as she could in whatever time she had left. And so she was able to launch the studio with five instructors — they've really been just a great team to be able to lean on. And it's really been an all-hands-on-deck situation since Amy passed, because we really wanted to explore what it would look like for us to continue with the work that she started and kind of build on that foundation that she was so painstakingly putting in place.”

Several of Effervescent’s regular teachers are former students of Amy’s, including Mo Plastow, a University of Sioux Falls graduate who received instruction from Amy in her time on campus and even before.

“I've known Amy and the Morrisons for a while now — when they moved to Mitchell almost nine years ago,” she said. “Since then, I had been taking lessons with Amy and really connected with her because of what an energetic, encouraging person she was. And through that I've been able to glean little bits of wisdom from taking lessons with her for so long and realize with voice, it's more than just the sound. It's the person, too, that we're impacting.

Effervescent instructor Court Anderson teaches a lesson in one of the academy’s multiple classrooms.

“Being able to reach out and meet students where they're at just connects people in a beautiful way. It’s about working together and exploring the different elements about our voice and how it can feel good either physically or how it can help us feel good mentally and emotionally.”

Not only does Effervescent have an established methodology for vocal instruction, but it also inhabits a physical space locally here in Sioux Falls, just west of downtown near the county administration building.

“The space definitely is vibrant,” Matt Morrison said. “It's essentially decorated in the spirit that Amy would've had it. She had picked out the paint colors, we got the wallpaper from a Pinterest board of hers. We are acquiring furniture that fits the vibe that she had laid out. So there's a lot of her presence in the physical space just in the ways that it represents that part of her personality.”

This quite literally “bubbly” aesthetic is more than just decorative, though. Matt cites the capabilities of the space to allow one-on-one lessons, two-one-one lessons and group rehearsals with fully equipped sound system, keyboard and other instruments as a unique part of the physical presence.

“Honestly, walk through the door and you're in this bright teal room with bright orange chairs. It's a colorful and energetic space, and you walk through the door and the people there care,” Plastow said “We are able to collaborate in a really, really unique way. We're not going to pigeonhole you if you want to explore. We have the capacity and the environment where we can foster exploration and encouragement and excitement to try new things and make different connections to our voice as an instrument.”

Effervescent’s unique processes begin with bringing on new students, where an intake lesson with one of the studio’s instructors helps to identify the best-fit plan for their curriculum. Maia Morrison, Amy and Matt’s child and current Augustana University student, helps to lead this intake process at the academy.

“We vocalize them, we talk about the philosophy of the studio, we try to get a sense of what their goals are, where they're really wanting to improve, and then are able to make an assessment of which teacher they think would be most appropriate to place them with,” Matt said. “They’re with that primary teacher for the first six lessons so that you get a little bit of continuity. And then after that, the studio is open to them.”

Membership to Effervescent exposes students to the full roster of faculty, including teachers adept at musical theatre, formal choral or operatic music and other areas of interest for participants. This has brought in not only students with prior connections to the studio’s founder, but also a host of new interest since Effervescent was established just over a year ago.

“Our students' demographics are wildly diverse,” Plastow said. “We have middle school, high school students who are involved with shows at their school or they just want to build confidence. They want to audition maybe for their choir, but they're not sure of themselves. And then we also have adults who come in who want to be better at singing. Maybe their voice has changed in different ways or they want to maybe try to write their own music.

“We just have a huge pool of people who are passionate about singing because it has impacted them in some way, shape or form throughout their life, and that's something that they want to continue to pursue. It’s super powerful because of the emotional impact music can have on a person. And whether that be working through something health-wise or a desire to be a performer, it's sort of magical.”

Local performing group the Midtown Coffee Radio Hour makes use of Effervescent’s fully equipped studio space for an evening rehearsal.

One of the most powerful elements of Effervescent’s mission as initially formed by Amy is that level of dedication to those she taught. A fervent fan of her students’ work in the community, Matt cited the last local performance Amy was able to attend in person before she passed, a fundraiser theatrical performance at the Orpheum Theater last summer.

“She couldn't even walk. I was wheeling her around at that show and afterwards we're sitting in the lobby, and she wanted to make sure she caught every single one of her students,” he said. “I think she had seven or eight in that show, and she would call each one of them over and they would just light up when they saw her again — the value of just showing up.

“But she went beyond where I've heard most teachers — her feedback was so specific. I think Mo and Maia probably share the most common language with Amy as a teacher. Mo because she spent so long in a studio setting with Amy and Maia, of course, having overheard thousands of lessons and had a handful from Amy as well. And so being able to hear her voice spoken through these other teachers has been a joy as well.”

Find out more about Effervescent Voice Academy, including how to become involved in vocal instruction and their mission-based work for passing the love of singing on to others at effmyvoice.com.