FOUNDER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, VOCAL COACH

McKenna Troy is a San Francisco–based vocal coach and the founder and artistic director of DAMATO Performance School. For seven years, she has coached professional singers and committed amateurs across the United States. McKenna treats students as equal partners in the learning process, combining her expertise with their goals, curiosity, and firsthand understanding of their own voices. Some are building professional careers; others sing because they love it and want to do it exceptionally well.

McKenna approaches vocal development as an athletic pursuit: transformation comes from identifying the coordination that needs to change, training it deliberately, and making the new skill reliable under performance conditions. At each lesson, students record a personalized sequence of exercises for their voice and goals. These exercises may come from McKenna’s extensive library or be created in the moment to address a specific challenge. She trains singers to phonate healthfully, reduce vocal fatigue, and create practical plans for managing demanding rehearsal, performance, and touring schedules.

McKenna is a specialist in mix development, rebalancing chest- or head-dominant voices, and expanding upper range across all voice types. She often works with classical singers who feel locked into head voice and classical production, developing the lower register needed to sing pop authentically. With pop and musical-theatre singers, she builds an underused or inaccessible head voice into a strong, reliable part of their instrument.

McKenna also specializes in developing authentic, emotionally connected performers. She teaches concrete tools for interpreting text, clarifying intention, and creating genuine connection in performance. Singers who once felt inhibited or disconnected learn to make bolder, more specific choices and perform with greater freedom and authenticity.

McKenna’s students sing with professional bands, tour, mount their first full shows, and earn leading roles in musicals and operas. Her coaching is informed by her own classical performance experience in Europe and the United States. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Opera Performance from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where she completed the Undergraduate Vocal Honors Program and received a grant to research opera singing and physiology. Her professional development has also included membership in the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Vocology in Practice. Her goal is to give every singer a voice they can trust and the artistic freedom to use it fully.

RESIDENT DIRECTOR, ACTING COACH

Brennan is a director, actor, writer, teaching artist, and proud Bay Area native. Recent work includes Sweeney Todd (Director) at the Throckmorton Theatre, Shrek (AD) and Matilda (AD) at the Presidio Theatre. 

He graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a BFA in Drama and trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. As an actor, Brennan has performed with A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Word For Word, Marin Theatre, and Marin Shakespeare Company, among others.

SFBATCC Winner: Actor In A Leading Role. Member, AEA (Actor’s Equity).

RESIDENT CHOREOGRAPHER

Kathryn is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist from the Bay Area she earned her BA in Musical Theatre from California State University, Chico and moved to NYC after college and continued studying dance at Steps & BDC.  

Kathryn is an Equity actress and has performed in numerous regional productions across the country, and has been lucky enough to serve as Dance Captain on a handful of them.

She’s choreographed at various Bay Area high schools and arts programs, as well as teaching dance at Academy of American Dance, Zohar, and Brisbane Dance Workshop.