Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica Stanley and Rachel Abbatiello.
Angelica and Rachel, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
To start our story, let’s go back to June of 2025. I went to a choir concert to support my friends, and boyfriend, and enjoy the music I still loved—especially since I had just made one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I had just resigned from teaching at the end of the 2025 school year.
After years of chronic stress, bureaucracy, and financial limitations crushing the joy out of education, my health had declined. Leaving was heartbreaking, but necessary. I didn’t know what was next—only that I couldn’t stay.
So I sat in that church, ready for a quiet night… until I spotted a familiar face on stage.
Rachel.
I was shocked and didn’t believe it was her at first. I hadn’t seen my former colleague in years—not since we’d both been public school choir teachers in the same county. Back then, we had bonded quickly over the same frustrations and the same dream: building thriving choir programs as safe spaces for students to express themselves despite the constant budget cuts and lack of support from school administrators.
Years prior, we had decided to collaborate on a joint concert with our choirs, and it had been a huge success. The kind of night that reminded us why we had started teaching in the first place. We left that concert knowing we worked incredibly well together.
But the next year, Rachel left teaching and eventually landed a job planning concerts at Carnegie Hall. I was sad to lose a growing friendship, but happy Rachel was chasing joy again.
Now, years later, there she was.
After the concert, we caught up on each other’s lives and it felt like no time had passed.
We still had the same passion, purpose, and energy when we were together.
“Within just a few hangouts, the idea practically formed on its own. At one point, we were sitting in my car and Rachel looked at me and said, “What if we opened a music studio together?”, and I was in disbelief, but then couldn’t stop smiling because in that moment, when I said yes, it was the most sure I had been about a decision in a long time.
We pulled out our phones and started making lists—program ideas, music literacy and vocal health resources, performance opportunities, and workshop ideas. Before the night was over, we had a name too.
Empowered Artistry Collective.
On September 5th, 2025, we officially opened our studio doors—and have spent every day since doing what we can to empower others to start becoming confident, heal, take that risk, and trust themselves.
Our story through this past year is one that reminds us, some friendships don’t fade.
They just wait for the right moment to return—stronger, louder, and perfectly in harmony.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Surprisingly, the journey has been much smoother than what we each experienced as performing arts teachers in the school system. We really credit that to our ability to stay flexible, think creatively, and approach challenges with determination, positivity, and a strong passion for community outreach and collaboration. Our biggest challenges so far have come from people underestimating what our team is capable of, as well as simply getting the word out about our studio and capturing attention about the incredible workshops we offer.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are always looking for more clients to start their musical journey with us! Additionally, we would love to start partnerships to do music or other creative workshops with homeschool groups and schools who are in search of more music support and enrichment. We consistently approach clients and groups with an inclusivity-based mindset, and we believe in using music as a vehicle for connection and engagement!
Both of us have extensive training in musical theatre, opera, choral music, and various other styles, with additional training in special education, music therapy, meditation, and therapeutic gardening. We are always looking to be involved, and get our students involved, in performance opportunities that will be a healthy environment for them to learn and grow.
We offer private and group voice lessons, piano lessons, and ukulele lessons and hope to add other instrument instruction soon! We also offer dramatic coaching, songwriting, performance anxiety/mental roadblock coaching, and audition preparation sessions. We do offer virtual or in-person lessons to private students. Additionally, we offer exciting crafting, gardening, wellness, and performing arts workshops that are great for all ages and backgrounds!
We have several things we are passionate about but they all boil down to a few concepts. Growing as people, growing with our community, and growing artists, are definitely incredibly important to us and give us the capabilities to keep doing what we are doing. At the heart of all we do lies the passion of empowering people through helping them connect their voice, body, and mind to build confidence for self-expression and adequately challenge them in their music-making and creative capabilities.
We are currently in the middle of a four part concert series we call “Unchambered”, which is in collaboration with Charlotte Chamber Choir. This concert really embodies the things we were never able to do in the classroom: get out and make real differences and connections in the underserved communities of Charlotte through food to feed their bodies and music to feed their souls. Our last two concerts in this series are in partnership with two homeless shelters/addiction recovery centers that are doing really wonderful work helping people in Charlotte. We aim to bring light and joy as well as bridge barriers to make the residents feel loved and valued.
Our mission statement: “We believe in fostering creative growth through an inclusive, empowering, and holistic approach to music education. We believe music is a vehicle for self-expression, healing, and connection. Our mission is to make high-quality, individualized music instruction accessible to all.”
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We are always planning something! Our goals within the next few years include: expanding our studio into a larger space (hopefully expanding internationally some day), expanding our impact with serving underprivileged communities with our nonprofit work in Charlotte, partnering with schools and homeschool groups to teach music literacy and healthy, confident music-making in a positive way that is accessible to all, hosting music festivals and choir camps in Concord, empowering even more voices and creating even more collaborations with wonderful locally owned businesses around the area, and hopefully start integrating music therapy classes into our business offerings, to name a few of our future plans!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.empoweredartistrycollective.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empowered_artistry_collective
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Empowered-Artistry-Collective-LLC/61578712179638/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@empowered.artistry
