About
As a vocal teacher and coach, Celeste has worked many prominent performers such as Kristin Chenoweth, Chita Rivera, Adam Chandler-Berat, Didi Conn, Sally Kellerman, Loni Ackermann, Elaine Joyce Simon, Academy Award nominee actress Amy Irving, composer David Shire, American Idol’s Kimberly Locke, Dancing with the Stars’ Mark Ballas, Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess, Ben Rosenfeld from Boardwalk Empire, Netflix’s The Family and The Amazing Mrs. Maisel. Recording artist Eleri Ward and Michael Cohen from Nickelodeon's Henry Danger.
Celeste’s students have appeared on Broadway in shows such as Moulin Rouge, Hamilton, The Lion King, The Notebook, The Great Gatsby, Chicago, Gypsy, Nine, Wicked, Spamalot, Tarzan, The Color Purple, The Book of Mormon, Jersey Boys, Hollywood Arms,The Grinch, The Carnegie Hall concert version of South Pacific, West Side Story, Baby It’s You, Rent, Follies, Next to Normal, Billy Elliot, Peter and the StarCatcher, Shrek, Once, Newsies, Kinky Boots, Matilda, Beauty and The Beast and The Producers. In addition to Broadway, many of Celeste’s students have performed in First National tours such as Mean Girls, The Band’s Visit and A Beautiful Noise, as well as esteemed regional houses such as Papermill Playhouse and Goodspeed Opera House.
Many of Celeste students have been nominated for The Roger Rees Award for Excellence in Student Performance. In 2018, student Alyssa McDonald took home the award.
“It’s important for someone like Celeste to be here, because she brings so much technical knowledge about the way the voice works.”
— Kristin Chenoweth
In 2019, Celeste began working as the private voice teacher to Chita Rivera. Prior to working together, Chita had never taken a voice lesson. Through private voice lessons, note sessions during rehearsals and warm-ups prior to performances, Celeste helped Chita create a vocal technique that allowed her to continue performing until her passing in 2024.
Celeste has worked as a vocal coach on numerous theatrical productions and movie sets including The Phantom of the Opera, alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joel Schumaker and ABC’s Alex In starring Zach Braff.
Currently, Celeste serves on the Board of Directors at the Bel Canto Institute which is in residence in Florence, Italy. She also is on the faculty at ActTeen, Broadway Artists Alliance, Kristin Chenoweth’s Broadway Boot Camp and the Roger Rees Awards. She is a member of Meastra, which is a group for women and nonbinary people who make music in Musical Theater. She has previously worked as a faculty member at Coupe Theater Studio,Turtle Bay Music School and Bergen Community College, as well as a masterclass teacher for numerous theatrical and classical education companies and institutions.
Celeste has performed around the world as a singer, cabaret artist and comedienne. She has used her expertise in this field to direct over 400 cabaret shows, many of which have led to a Best Director nomination by MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabaret). Her Onstage Cabaret Workshop was one of the most popular performance workshops in New York City. The New York Times Article “Life is a Cabaret” said “Celeste is the one to go to when you want the best cabaret direction”. She served as the Artistic Director of High5 Vocalworks for ten years and has also taken her talents to St. Louis, where she served as the vocal and performance coach for the St. Louis Cabaret Project.
As a performer, Celeste has appeared in numerous TV commercials and was featured in the movie DIRT, which was seen at the Cannes and Toronto Film festivals. She has shared the stage with Rita Moreno, Wayland Flowers & Madame, Linda Hopkins, Marty Allen, Kaye Ballard, The Pointer Sisters, Bill Irwin, Alan Ruck, Barry Boswick, and American Idol Arranger/Pianist Michael Orland. Her television credits include the NBC series Fantasy with Leslie Uggams and Tom Wopat. Her theatrical credits include the off-Broadway production of Rappicicini’s Daughter, The Goodspeed Opera House, The Birmingham Theatre and The Paper Mill Playhouse.
Sitting in on this rehearsal is Celeste Simone, a renown voice teacher who is part of this year’s bootcamp faculty. Once Chenoweth manages to make it through “Much More,” she sits down with Simone, who has a few words of advice. Or, rather, one word in particular: Instead of pronouncing the word “more” in the song, Simone suggests Chenoweth sing the syllable “Ma.”
In the context of a performance, the difference in the sound of the two syllables is imperceptible. But the effect is immediate — the phrase is much more resonant and powerful. “But you see,” Simone said, tracing a finger across Chenoweth’s cheek, “how that opens every thing up.”
“It’s important for someone like Simone to be here, because she brings so much technical knowledge about the way the voice works,” Chenoweth said. “She speaks in a way that reminds me a lot of my first voice teacher, Florence Birdwell. And for the kids, they can begin to understand how their voices make those incredible sounds, so they are better able to take care of themselves, to fix problems on their own.”
