Frances Ewington

AMRC, LMRC, RMT

ARMTA - Alberta Registered Music Teacher’s Association

VASTA - Voice and Speech Trainers Association

Frances received her Associate and Licentiate diplomas in Speech Arts & Drama from the Mount Royal Conservatory in 1997. She was awarded the “Love of Literature” Scholarship and received the highest mark attainable on her Associate Pedagogy. At the time, she was the first Speech student to receive a Licentiate diploma from Mount Royal in a decade.

Frances was then employed by Mount Royal Conservatory as a Speech Arts & Drama instructor, where she taught private lessons, group Speech Arts, and Theory on-and-off from 1997 to 2016. She then opened her own studio in 2017 and has been teaching students from her home ever since. Frances has been preparing students, of all levels, for their Royal Conservatory Practical & Theory Examinations, since 1997. In 2023, The Royal Conservatory of Music acknowledged Frances for 26 years of teaching the RCM Certificate Program. Over the years, many of her students have won the Provincial medal for highest mark. In 2024 Frances’ student claimed the prestigious RCM National medal. Her students have also performed in the The Calgary Performing Arts Festival (formerly Kiwanis) for 3 decades, winning countless awards & scholarships, including the Speech Association Rose Bowl. Since 2020, Frances’ students have consistently won every single ARMTA Calgary Recital & Awards medal and scholarships for Speech Arts & Drama. Frances currently teaches private lessons, adjudicates at local drama & poetry events, and is an instructor at the Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio. Company of Rogues is a post-secondary institution under the Government of Canada with a 2-year program for professional actors. Rogues Studio trains actors in all aspects of the craft including Voice, Movement, Scene Study, Shakespeare, and Meisner Technique. Instructors use the teachings of Constantine Stanislavski and his interpretations through Sanford Meisner and Uta Hagen. Frances teaches Voice for the Actor, Accents, and, occasionally, Essentials of Acting.

Frances’ professional development includes training with Theatre Alberta, The Registered Speech Teachers Association, The Canadian Society of Alexander Technique, University of Calgary, and Mount Royal University. Frances is a 2005 Masterclass program graduate from Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio, training in Meisner Technique, stage, film, and directing. In 2013, Frances attended the prestigious Canadian National Voice Intensive at the University of British Columbia, working with eleven of the top voice and movement practitioners in Canada including VASTA distinguished member David Smukler. She is also trained in Embodied Practice, Syntonics, and Authentic Movement under the guidance of internationally-renowned movement specialist Judith Koltai, and Valerie Campbell, Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Calgary.

Aside from Speech Arts, Frances is a soprano singer, having sung with numerous choirs between 1990 and 2015, including Mount Royal Kantorei and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus. She is also a Yoga Alliance Certified instructor. Frances worked as an Early Reading Interventionist for the Calgary Arts Academy and is is trained in the TLC Lively Letters program and Fountas & Pinnell Levelled Literacy Intervention System.

Frances is a full member of ARMTA (Alberta Registered Music Teacher’s Association) and Past Chair of the Calgary ARMTA Branch. This means Frances is fully qualified in both performance and pedagogy as set out in the Society Act of ARMTA (1982) Chapter S-18 of the Revised Statues of Alberta (1980), and is insured under the ARMTA umbrella. Her Calgary Police background check is available upon request.

Actively participating in the performing arts requires all of our being. Those who learn through the arts do so in a fully immersed way. I am proud to be an arts teacher.