BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Zenz Plemmons is a piano, voice, and classroom teacher, accompanist, and performing soprano in the greater Chicagoland area. Liz believes that the joy of making music is within anyone's grasp, regardless of age or ability. She specializes in teaching early childhood music and students with learning challenges.

Liz began her musical career at the age of three with her first piano lesson. The daughter of two full-time music educators and performers, she grew up performing as a pianist, singer, and percussionist in a wide variety of settings and ensembles. She sang back-up for Sesame Street's Bob McGrath, and took on other appearances with local groups and ensembles. She started her teaching career when she was a senior in high school. After graduation in 1994, Liz moved north to pursue a degree in Music Education with a Vocal emphasis from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. She began teaching full-time in 1998.

After working in Washington D.C. as an intern with deaf and hearing-impaired individuals during the summer off 1998, Liz came back to Eau Claire to find a growing interest in music education for local deaf and hearing-impaired children. She used her proficiency in American Sign Language and her experience with deaf culture to develop curricula for hearing-impaired students. At about the same time, Liz also began to specialize in teaching children with learning disabilities including ADHD, a condition with which she herself had been diagnosed.

While in Eau Claire, Liz participated in many local ensembles, including the critically-acclaimed group The Master Singers, and was a voice student and rehearsal accompanist in the studio of world-renowned soprano Oksana Bryn at the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis, MN.

In September 2002, Liz transplanted herself to the Chicago area to further enhance her musical career and education. In 2004, she successfully pioneered the Music Studio at the McGaw YMCA, a program designed to reach out to at-risk youth in the Evanston, IL community with quality, affordable music instruction.

In 2020, Liz returned to school to earn degrees in PreK-12 General and Choral Music Education, Vocal Performance, and Community Engagement from the University of Wisconsin - Parkside. Liz furthered her education by earning Master of Music Degree in Vocal Chamber Music from the University of Redlands in Redlands, CA, under the direction of Christopher Gabbitas, in August of 2023.

Liz has since employed her talents in a number of ways, including accompanying and adjudicating for the WSMA Solo/ Ensemble Festivals in Wisconsin, accompanying for various music festivals throughout the greater North Shore area, and choral singing and accompanying in the Northwestern University Music Department. She has studied jazz technique for both piano and voice with Chicago pianist Dr. Chris White, small ensemble choral technique with international a cappella group The King's Singers, and classical vocal technique with celebrated Mezzo-Soprano Allison Hull and internationally acclaimed Lyric Opera alumna Alicia Berneche. She has also participated in choral conducting masterclasses with Arizona State University's Director of Choral Activities Dr. Jace Saplan, and Los Angeles Master Chorale Associate Artistic Director Dr. Jennifer Wong Liz served as an assistant director of Coriolis, a contemporary, a cappella vocal ensemble based in Evanston, IL, and is the current Artistiic Director for the Lakeshore Singers in Gurnee, IL. Liz is an active performer in Chicago around the country, singing such performances as a back-up vocals for Josh Groban in 2023, and in the opera chorus for The Chicago Philharmonic's 2024 live premier of Bram Stoker's Dracula. She currently performs with the critically-acclaimed choral group, the Chicago Chamber Choir.

Liz is an active member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA), the National Association for Teachers of Singing (NATS), and the Greater Chicago American Orff-Schulwerk Association (GCAOSA). When not teaching lessons or performing, she teaches Middle School Choir in the northern suburbs of Chicago. She currently lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband Mark, daughter Zoë, and two cats Minty and Jiji.