HOME
Voice and Speech Coaching
Specialties Include:
Theater/ Film Coaching for Actors
Presentation Skills for Business
  • Dialects
  • Accent Reduction
  • Classic Texts
  • Vocal Production
Current Clients
The Juilliard School
New York Life Investment Management
Old Greenwich School
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Radius Global Market Research
Arch Insurance
Corinne McCormack
TAG Online, Inc.
EXPERIENCE:
Oct 2007-Jan 2008
BlackRock
  • Accent Reduction / Presentation Skills Coach
Nov 2009-March 2010
BlackRock
  • Accent Reduction / Presentation Skills Coach
Jan-Dec 2005
Credit Suisse Bank New York, NY
Accent Reduction / Presentation Skills Coach
  • Created a pilot course for international employees that ran in 10 week cycles. This program identified and corrected regionalisms and trouble sounds that inhibit clear communication and was geared to have students speak with more confidence.
  • Success of pilot, evaluated at a 90% success rate, prompted a level two course where graduates of level one practiced and perfected their presentation skills.
  • Taught private accent reduction/presentation skills to managers.
1989-2010
NYU, The Atlantic Theater School, Tisch School of the Arts
Head of Speech Department
  • Created a syllabus for a 3 year undergraduate training program
  • Taught the International Phonetic Alphabet to eliminate regionalisms
  • Accents/dialects training
  • Developed a teacher training program.
1988-1997 Playwrights Horizons Theatre School
  • Head of Speech Department
1988-1989 The Marymount School
  • Speech teacher
1987-1989 The American Academy of Dramatic Arts
  • Speech teacher
Education: 1984 Graduate The Juilliard School Theater Center ~ Honors: The Drama League Award,
The Edith Skinner Prize (in speech), The Richard Rodgers Award
Testimonial:
 Peter Facinelli ("Twilight" and "Nurse Jackie" star)

"He cites the teachers as one of the best aspects of NYU, and says it's thanks to his speech teacher, Susan Finch, that there's no trace left of that thick New York accent he had when he first arrived." To read more, click here. (PDF)

Adam Bradley (Actor currently living & working in Canada)

I had the pleasure of working with Susan through my two years of conservatory training and I’d be hard-pressed to name a better teacher, let alone speech teacher.

She is one of those rare teachers who can pinpoint exactly where you’re going wrong and what you need to do to fix it, who will offer you the care and support you need to get there, but who will also keep pushing you until you’re there. She won’t lob softballs and tell you you’re doing great if you aren’t, but she will keep encouraging you to move in the right direction. Praise from her may be hard-earned, but it is definitely well-deserved when won.

Having graduated eighteen months ago, I’m happy to be able to call Susan not just an old teacher of mine, but also a friend.

An anecdote: I was shooting a Toyota commercial over the summer, and it was all done on green-screen with a teleprompter feeding me pages and pages of text. And not simple text: long descriptions of VVT-i technology, double-fluidic wipers with mist control, and seatbelt pre-tensioners and force-limiters. It was all a big mouthful, but I got through it all thanks to the speech and tongue exercises that I learned in Susan’s class (and practice almost every day.)

But the lip and tongue endurance and muscularity needed to get through all the text must have been too much for one of the other actors because the next day the producers fired him and brought me back in to finish his job. Thanks to Susan, I was able to come in and save the day! (and make another $2100.)

©2010 Susan Finch | 130 Ft. Washington Ave, New York, NY 10032 | 212-740-7031 | susan@susanfinchart.com
Servicing New York, New Jersey & Conneticut
Website Design, Development & Hosting by TAG Online, Inc.