Zicklin MBA Student Brings Business and Art Together Through Voice

Zicklin School of Business student Luke Steinhauer (MBA, ‘25) is in the business of voice training. 

The Evening MBA candidate recently gave a presentation called “How You Say It Matters,” offering tips for using your voice to “engage, excite, empathize, and entice.” During the 15-minute talk, which was part of the TEDX CUNY 2024 student-led conference held at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Luke led the audience in engaging exercises that taught them how to control the pitch, clarity, loudness, and speaking rate of their voices.  

“Communications training usually focuses on what to say, but not how to say it,” says Luke, a professional vocal coach whose clients include Broadway and opera performers as well as executives from Google, Meta, and other companies. “But research on what matters when speaking shows that only seven percent is about what you say.”  

Luke studied musical theater in college and, like thousands of hopefuls before him, was lured to the Big Apple by the bright lights of Broadway. He performed and starred in several shows both in New York and on the road; when he decided to move on from acting it was only natural that he chose to become a vocal coach. He was following in the footsteps of his mother, a professional singer turned educator who is the president and owner of Estill Voice International, a voice training, research, and certification business, where he is director of operations and business development. 

Not long after joining Estill, Luke decided to pursue an MBA. “I’ve always been a big believer in higher education, and I always wanted to get a master’s,” he says, adding, “I found out about the Zicklin School through word of mouth—other businesspeople told me it was a respected school, and it made sense both economically and academically.”  

Luke adds that what makes Zicklin “amazing” is the faculty: “They focus on why they’re there—why they teach—and it makes for great classes,” he says, singling out adjunct lecturers Mindel Klein (Allen G. Aaronson Department of Marketing and International Business) and Roger McKechnie (Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management) for specific praise: “The teachers bring out the excellence in the students.”  

Once he finishes his MBA next year, Luke says he will likely step into a larger leadership role at Estill Voice International. Meanwhile, his studies of entrepreneurship and practice in writing business plans are preparing him for that day, and he continues to teach students privately too. “Art and business really help each other,” he sums up. “You need both.”  

Categories: Alumni News, Faculty, News, Student News