Singer
Composer
Vocal Empowerment Guide

Meet

free voice,
free heart

MJ

Teaching, Performing, and Creating Music since 1999

Hey there, I'm Mary Jane

ON A MISSION TO Heal hearts and free voices through music

I didn’t start out thinking I’d spend my life helping people reclaim their voices. I started out as a small-town Iowa kid obsessed with playing the piano and singing at the top of my lungs — convinced that if I could just get loud enough, I could reach something true.

Turns out, I was right. It just took me a few decades to understand what I was actually reaching for.

By high school I was the girl they called when they needed someone to sing at the Governor’s Mansion. I performed for the Iowa House of Representatives and sang for Laura Bush back when she was still the Texas Governor’s wife. I also found myself teaching Sunday School music, directing Christmas programs, and leading people in song wherever I could find them.

Then during my senior year I performed the role of Maria in The Sound of Music — and something clicked. Maria brought music and healing to a family that desperately needed both. I couldn’t name it at the time, but I knew my purpose lived somewhere inside that story.

So I followed the call. A Bachelor’s in Vocal Music Education from Simpson College. A Master’s in Vocal Performance from the University of Nebraska. And then I did what you do with two degrees in singing — I went out and used them.

the voice can heal the soul

authentic storytelling

The Professional Years

I didn’t dip my toes in. I dove headfirst.

Opera Memphis. Theatre Memphis. Quad Cities Opera. Theatre Cedar Rapids. Riverside Theatre. If there was an opera or musical theatre stage in the cities I lived, I’ve probably sung on it.

I’ve performed as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Scalia/Ginsburg, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and the Girl in Once. I’ve sung everything from Vivaldi’s Magnificat to Handel’s Dixit Dominus, performed with the Memphis Symphony, at Carnegie Hall, and in a live film score performance of Joan of Arc with the composer. I appeared in a regional premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Ruminations that ended up on PBS.

All the while, I was teaching. For over 25 years I have sung with babies and preschoolers, kindergartners through twelfth graders, college students, church choirs of every age, and just about every adult who has found their way to my private studio. I have never liked to be bored — or maybe it is my insatiable quest to quench the longing.

And somewhere in all of those performances and classrooms — through opera, musical theatre, church music, and concert stages — I began to understand that the voice is not just an instrument of performance. It is an instrument of the soul. And it belongs to everyone.

vocal midwife and guide

The Plot Twist

Here is what two degrees and twenty-five years on professional stages taught me: the most powerful thing the voice can do is not perform. It is heal.

I’ve watched a teenager with a severe stutter discover that when he sings, the stutter disappears. I’ve watched a woman in her sixties — who was told in elementary school to mouth the words — find her voice for the first time and weep. I’ve watched people come into my studio carrying years of silence in their bodies and leave carrying something lighter.

The voice is where the body and the soul meet. And every voice — trained or untrained, confident or terrified, loud or barely a whisper — carries the power to heal, to connect, and to change lives.

That is what I believe. That is why I do this work.

Everything I learned on professional stages and in classrooms is now in service of one mission: helping people come home to their voices.

I’ve distilled all of my experience into Voices of Healing, my online community of people healing through the voice, and Knightingale Voice, my Iowa City vocal studio. I offer voice lessons, classes, and vocal meditation singing circles. Because turns out, when you’ve spent decades mastering your craft, the next step isn’t retirement—it’s revolution.

I am also a composer and recording artist — my debut album Rising Free: A Journey of Healing has been called “raw, heartfelt, hopeful” — and the author of The Light Between the Lines, a poetry collection born from my own dark night of the soul.

And I am currently writing my first full-length book: Coming Home to Our Voice.

Sometimes the most revolutionary thing a classically trained opera singer can do is teach regular people that they deserve to be heard. I have built my whole life around that revolution.

A Glimpse Into My Life

My Favorite Place to Perform:

Riverside Theatre in Iowa City

Favorite people to hang with:

My husband and my two brilliant, beautiful teenagers

You’d Be Surprised to Learn:

I love camping and I own a travel trailer

Best Way to Unwind:

Reruns of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman or Outlander

I Never Leave home without:

Water, a singer’s best friend

I write songs because:

It’s my heart’s calling

I’m Most Proud Of:

My children, my album and book, and my home: the historical Emma Harvat house.

Morning or Nights:

Enjoying the morning sun with a cup of tea on my porch or in my sunroom

My Offerings

Your voice is waiting to come home. I’d love to help you find it.

all offerings are from my heart

If you're here, I want to hear from you.

performance + music + community

Whether you’re interested in listening to my music, booking me for a performance or workshop, attending one of my classes, or simply feel called to reach out and connect, I’d love to hear from you.