Jen Kuethe is very excited to be joining the Stageworkz family as a vocal instructor. She has been surrounded by singing since she was born, with both her parents, and many Aunts and Uncles, involved in the men’s Barbershop Harmony Society and the women’s Sweet Adelines International organization. She and her sister spent their childhoods learning barbershop harmonies in the car and performing on their parent’s barbershop shows. It was inevitable that she would join Sweet Adelines one day and has been a member for 21 years. During those years, she has performed with several regionally ranked quartets and her latest quartet, Capri, competed at the International level for 8 years, placing as high as 3^rd out of 50 some quartets from all over the world. Other notable achievements with Capri include: winning the Most Entertaining Quartet award at 2 of 8 international contests, winning the Audience Favorite award at the Sing Strong A cappella Idol contest in 2009 and again in 2011, where they also won the contest; being nominated for two CARA’s (Contemporary A cappella Recording Awards) for Best Barbershop album for their 1^st CD, Capri Diem, and Best Barbershop Song, Child in Me, from that CD. They won 1^st runner up in both categories. Capri was also recognized for their work with youth singers in both the men’s and women’s organizations and was invited to perform their humorous and touching show packages all over the country.  Capri’s real 15 minutes of fame occurred when they entered Ellen’s Singing in the Bathroom contest, and their video appeared in the opening segment of her show. You can find that on You Tube, embarrassingly enough J.  Currently, Jen serves as a coach for several choruses and quartets and sings with the award winning Sweet Adeline’s chorus, Harbor City Music Company. Outside of Barbershop, Jen is a member of the Annapolis Vocal Corps, a seven member a cappella group that performed relentlessly in the area in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and still make annual appearances at the Rams Head on Stage for the ‘An Annapolis Christmas’ show.

Besides a cappella, her other vocal passion is jazz. Before starting her family in the early 90’s, she performed regularly at The King of France Tavern in Annapolis (now Starbucks J), and at Middleton’s Tavern, for The Sunday Blues Show. She is once again exercising her jazz chops, performing in the area with her band, Three Shot Mocha.

In her musical circles, Jen is renowned for her ability to connect with an audience. She believes interpreting and performing a song is much like creating a painting. Each requires the artist to use layers of color, texture and a little of their souls to tell a story, while at the same time, inviting the audience to create their own meaning within that story. A good vocalist will go beyond, “showing them how you feel,” to allowing an audience to feel with them. This, in addition to the techniques she has mastered as a performer, is what she hopes to impart to her students.

In real life, Jen is an Art teacher stuck in a Music/FACS/Study Skills teacher’s body. She currently teaches at Crofton Middle School, where she recently lent her barbershop expertise to their production of The Music Man. She has 3 wonderful, talented children, Alex, Will and Charlotte, and a mutant Bichon named Dash. When not teaching or singing, she can usually be found painting some kind of scenery.