About Michael Forman

Private Coaching • Master Classes • Classroom Instruction • Musical Direction

For over 20 years, I am proud to continue to be the first choice for countless singers, actors and dancers in New York City and around the globe. Nothing makes me more proud and delighted, than being able to help performers achieve their dreams. Whether you are looking to refine your audition skills, build a repertoire book, act your song, gain confidence or all of the above, I will help you refine the talents and skills necessary to do your finest work. My academic teaching background as an instructor includes the Yale School of Drama Graduate Program, NYU (Steinhardt and Tisch), the University of California Irvine (NY Satellite Program), Fordham University at Lincoln Center and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Whether you are looking for admittance to your choice of college or training to fulfill your Tony award dreams, it’s my pleasure to help you to prepare you for the career of a lifetime!

My experience and education started as a young actor-singer-dancer who got his first professional job at 17 years old. I went on to study acting and directing at Arizona State University. Being a big fish in a little pond, my acceptance to AMDA got me settled in New York City where I studied musical theatre performance with master teachers from both the Golden Age (Karen Gustafson) and Contemporary Musical Theatre (Clay Fullum). Yet, I always found myself back in the studio and behind the piano coaching my classmates.

My vocal technique background incorporates studies I did with Eileen Schauler (The Metropolitan Opera, City Opera and Broadway), James Congdon (Baby, 42nd Street, Working, Et al.), and the late Marianne Challis. A close colleague and friend, Marianne was one of the most sought after protégés of Joan Lader (Tony Award Winner, Speech Pathologist, Voice Teacher). My students and I pursue healthy, mindful singing supported by the emotional fuel of the lyric.

My first teaching position was doing individual coachings and classroom instruction at Fordham University, while mentoring under Broadway conductor Don Jones. Soon, outside of academia, both working and aspiring professionals sought me out because my private clients started booking their first Broadway shows. A short time later, I acted as a musical director touring the United States (Annie and Best Little WHorehouse…). Still, knowing I needed to refine my own work, I went back to school a third time to study composition, voice and piano at Mannes College Of Music on New York City’s Upper West Side. Always interested in the development of new musicals, I worked at Playwrights Horizons in residence during which time Stephen Sondheim (Assassins), Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (My Favorite Year), Michael John LaChiusa (Four Short Operas), Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance Of Fire) and A.R. Gurney (The Old Boy) were produced by Andre Bishop and Ira Weitzman, both now at Lincoln Center Theatre.