Throughout a diverse career in music performance, education, composition, and administration, Leslie Moruza Dripps, mezzo-soprano, has taught vocal, choral, and general music at the elementary, middle, high school, and adult levels in the form of classroom and private studio instruction, choral workshops and clinics, curriculum design, consulting, and adjudications. She will teach you to sing unless you are very, very careful.
A passionate advocate for equitable access to music education, Leslie provides music education consulting to schools, school districts, churches, and museums, and frequently leads all-area choirs, workshops, clinics, and adjudications across the state, specializing in the developing voice across the voicechange and music literacy for singers. Leslie enjoys studying the intersection of the arts and everyday human experiences, especially in school and worship settings, with interest in bridging communication gaps between music educators, administrators, and the families they serve.
As a songwriter and recording artist, Leslie earned international commercial and film credits with the band album Moruza (2008), and since then has focused on a variety of creative projects, including composing (singable and delightful!) scripture memory songs, producing various choral recording projects, and composing for her various youth choral groups. Her compositions help fill voids within youth choral music, including artistically rich and pedagogically-sound music for very young singers, canons set to text by underrepresented poets, partner songs designed to join tiny and mature singers, and musically-designed school memory-aid songs. She recently joined singer and fiddler Betsy Podsiadlo to form the vocal duo Ferox, and they bring appreciative audiences ancient and new tunes accompanied by a menagerie of wild instruments.
Leslie sings professionally as a mezzo-soprano in a variety of regional settings, enjoying performances as soprano soloist in Poulenc’s Gloria and alto soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Virginia Masterworks Choral, and is a member of Richmond’s elite vocal ensemble, Vox Humana (hear Leslie at 50:55) under the baton of William Bradley Roberts. Leslie studies voice with Margaret Woods.
Leslie currently serves as executive and artistic director of City Singers Youth Choirs in Richmond, Virginia, teaching there since 2007, and also sings as alto section leader in the Chancel Choir of River Road Church, Baptist. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, three children, Peebes the welcoming cat, and an ornery garden. She ardently encourages work-life balance for musicians and their students–a benefit she discovered from living with severe chronic illness–and so it’s ok that the laundry is never, ever done.
Throughout a diverse career in music performance, education, composition, and administration, Leslie Moruza Dripps, mezzo-soprano, has taught vocal, choral, and general music at the elementary, middle, high school, and adult levels in the form of classroom and private studio instruction, choral workshops and clinics, curriculum design, consulting, and adjudications. She will teach you to sing unless you are very, very careful.
A passionate advocate for equitable access to music education, Leslie provides music education consulting to schools, school districts, churches, and museums, and frequently leads all-area choirs, workshops, clinics, and adjudications across the state, specializing in the developing voice across the voice change and music literacy for singers. Leslie enjoys studying the intersection of the arts and everyday human experiences, especially in school and worship settings, with interest in bridging communication gaps between music educators, administrators, and the families they serve.
As a songwriter and recording artist, Leslie earned international commercial and film credits with the band album Moruza (2008), and since then has focused on a variety of creative projects, including composing (singable and delightful!) scripture memory songs, producing various choral recording projects, and composing for her various youth choral groups. Her compositions help fill voids within youth choral music, including artistically rich and pedagogically-sound music for very young singers, canons set to text by underrepresented poets, partner songs designed to join tiny and mature singers, and musically-designed school memory-aid songs. She recently joined singer and fiddler Betsy Podsiadlo to form the vocal duo Ferox, and they bring appreciative audiences ancient and new tunes accompanied by a menagerie of wild instruments.
Leslie sings professionally as a mezzo-soprano in a variety of regional settings, enjoying performances as soprano soloist in Poulenc’s Gloria and alto soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Virginia Masterworks Choral, and is a member of Richmond’s elite vocal ensemble, Vox Humana (hear Leslie at 50:55) under the baton of William Bradley Roberts. Leslie studies voice with Margaret Woods.
Leslie currently serves as executive and artistic director of City Singers Youth Choirs in Richmond, Virginia, teaching there since 2007, and also sings as alto section leader in the Chancel Choir of River Road Church, Baptist. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, three children, Peebes the welcoming cat, and an ornery garden. She ardently encourages work-life balance for musicians and their students–a benefit she discovered from living with severe chronic illness–and so it’s ok that the laundry is never, ever done.