Michelle Coder is a boundary-crosser; a credentialed teacher and college professor, multi-media artist, set & costume designer, vocal performer, playwright, and theater director with 30 years of experience as a working artist and Arts instructor. She is currently completing a degree in Art & Design. Coder was the recipient of a Young Artist award for art at Chico, California, and has been the recipient of Placer County artistic grants for her original musicals, "A Little Princess," and "Thumbelina." She was the featured soprano soloist with numerous regional symphonies and chamber ensembles and performed with the Harrington String Quartet and Duo Vernier. She was also the winner of a National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Young Artist Award and was a finalist in the Carmel Young Artist Vocal Competition. After deciding to establish a vocal studio in the Auburn area, she co-founded several musical and theatrical groups including the Auburn Camerata, Auburn Light Opera, a women’s theater troupe, the Auburn Children’s Chorus, and the award-winning show choir, The Swingin’ Sweethearts. She also produced, directed, and designed numerous adult and children’s productions in association with Music & More Arts Academy, receiving SARTA Elly nominations for Best Director and Best Set Design. To date, she continues to teach theater arts and maintains a private music and art studio in Auburn at Music & More.Writing, and composing are her great passions along with art. Coder published two musical adaptations, Hans Christian Anderson’s Thumbelina, premiered by STC’s Young Actors Conservatory, and an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, which won the 2004 Sacramento Area Regional Theater Alliance (SARTA) Elly award for the best-adapted script. More recently, she wrote and produced an original theatrical adaptation of the novel Chasing Moonshine by Raymond L.F. Johnson with James Van Eaton.Michelle considers herself a teaching, multimedia artist and is very proud of students who have enjoyed success in local music programs and community theater, pursued careers as solo artists, and garnered scholarships to continue studies in music, art, and theater at educational institutions such as UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Pepperdine University, San Francisco Conservatory, Emerson College, Oxford School of Drama and New York Academy of Performing Arts. She is also thrilled many of the most talented of these students have also chosen to share their love of the Arts as exceptional music, art, drama teachers, and music therapists.