We are ALWAYS looking for Volunteers and Volunteer Voice Instructors!
About the founder of Native Voices
Larisa Mangione
Structure and founder
Larisa Mangione is the Founder of Native Voices. Larisa holds a BS in Music Education from Roberts Wesleyan College and an MS Ed from SUNY Brockport in Interdisciplinary Arts for Children. Larisa taught at a small rural school district in New York State for almost twenty years as the Vocal/Choral/General Music Teacher. She also maintained a small private studio for piano and voice lessons to help pay for her horse habit. When Larisa’s husband changed careers, they moved near Washington, DC where Larisa opened the Larisa Mangione Music Studio. Larisa’s students have: been a contestant on The Voice, Cast for Nickelodeon Television’s- Good Newz Girls, performed the National Anthem for professional sporting events, participated in local, state and national choirs, received leading roles in community and school musical theater productions, performed at a Master Class for Renee Fleming, been accepted to many prestigious colleges and universities and much more! Larisa has continued her studies of Vocal Pedagogy by attending the CCM Institute at Shenandoah University, Singing Voice Science Works, and David Jones Workshops. Larisa is a voice student of Lori Fredrics.
About Peggy Hill
Peggy Perry Hill
Director
Peggy Perry Hill holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Michigan. She spent many years as a public school teacher. Her goal was always to be a full time writer. She has spent the past 25 years traveling the globe with her husband, John Two-Hawks, presenting concerts, workshops and retreats. her mantra has been “Making Music and Making Friends”. Peggy has also written several books with her latest being, “Give Peas a Chance” a nostalgic ’60’s cookbook which she wrote during the pandemic. She has facilitated Women of Wisdom (WOW) retreats for over 15 years. Peggy is the owner of Circle Studios Records and CST Media Publishing Company. She also hosts a blog called “Love is a Verb” on her website. Peggy is a wife, mother, and grandmother who loves writing music, theater, and culinary arts.
About Talon Bazille Ducheneaux
Talon Bazille Ducheneaux
Director
Talon Bazille Ducheneaux, rap artist and sound designer, holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is originally from Badnation, SD. Talon is the founder of Wonahun Waste Studio. A 2019 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellow, he was a featured performer and sound designer at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC for the We The Peoples Before 25th anniversary celebration program. Talon is also a 2021-22 Rural Regenerator Fellow with Springboard for the Arts. You can find his music at www.BAZTK.com
About Jennifer Stevens
Jennifer Stevens
Director
Jennifer Stevens (Oneida and Oglala Lakota) is currently a resident of Bayview-Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin through her father and Oglala Lakota through her mother. She was born in Alexandria, Virginia and raised on the Oneida Nation-De Pere, Wisconsin and received her BA in Art from St. Norbert College. Jennifer has weaved a creative life as a classical singer and visual artist. She studied Classical Singing and Opera nationally and internationally and she studied Classical Art in college and traditional Oneida Pottery with prominent woodland Indigenous artists, including Rose K. Kerstetter, Peter B. Jones and Richard Zane Smith. Jennifer became nationally known for her contribution in cultural preservation through Oneida Pottery revitalization, taught Oneida Pottery for 20 years (4k-Advance level students) and is one of the few in history to become a professional Native American woman composer and classical singer. Stevens was acknowledged in the book Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America by Elaine Keillor and Timothy Archambault, and was a featured artist, singer and Composer on PBS-Wisconsin Public Television Wisconsin Life and the documentary, Owe.la’: The Music Within Jennifer Stevens. Stevens is a singer, composer, artist, researcher and educator, and her life philosophy is “community building through the arts.”