VOICEPrints - Matthew Hoch

Vol. 16, no. 1, September--October 2018 NYSTA©

VOICEPrintsJOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK SINGING TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION

Volume 16, Number 1September--October 2018

Season Opening Event: Master Class with Soprano Jennifer Rowley.....................................................1

President’s and Editor’s Messages.....................................................................................................2--6

2018--2019 Events Calendar......................................................................................................................7

Call for Singers.........................................................................................................................................8

NYSTA Professional Development Program...................................................................................... 8

Feature Article: The Voice Teacher as Advocate: Making a Case for Arts Integration, by Nathan Krueger......................................................................................................................9--11

Feature Article: Singing For A New World: How Voice Can Save The Culture, by John Nix, Lynn Helding, Erin Guinup, Constanza Roeder, and Allen Henderson...........................12--15

Book Review by Susan Williams: Performance Anxiety Strategies............................................16--18

Book Review by Chadley Ballantyne: Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy.............................................19--22

NYSTA New Members 2018............................................................................................................ 23-24

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Season Opening Event & ReceptionJOSEPHINE MONGIARDO GREAT COACHES SERIES

Master Class with Soprano Jennifer Rowley(Appearing courtesy The Metropolitan Opera)

Sunday, October 14, 2018 4:00-6:00 PM EDTMarc Scorca Hall at National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYCFree for NYSTA members, students, and guests. Donations welcome.

1

Four singers will be selected to present two operatic arias for Ms. Rowley. See Call for Singers (page 8) forapplication information. Soprano Jennifer Rowley is acclaimed worldwide for her unforgettable voice andremarkable stage presence. Her triumphant Metropolitan Opera role debut in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergeracinspired universal critical praise. This fall she will appear at the Met as Tosca and Adriana Lecouvreur. Inrecent seasons, Ms. Rowley has also sung at the Royal Opera House/Covent Garden, Teatro Colón,Norwegian National Opera, Savonlinna Festival, Opéra de Lille, Théâtre de Caen, West Australian Opera,the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and Opera Hong Kong.

In the US, the soprano has enjoyed notable successes with the New York City Opera, Cleveland Opera,Toledo Opera, New Orleans Opera, and at Spoleto Festival USA, Caramoor Music Festival, and CarnegieHall. This summer she starred in the title role of Mayr’s Medea in Corinto in New York.

The highly decorated soprano has been recognized by many international voice competitions. She holdsa master of music degree from the Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and a bachelor of musicdegree from the Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory of Music. She holds a certificate of performanceachievement from the Instituto Superior del Arte of the Teatro Colón, and was a Max Kade Scholar atMiddlebury College’s German for Singers program.

© F

amou

s St

udio

s


PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEVoice Pedagogy: Celebrating the Past

with One Eye Fixed Firmly on the Future

In May 2018, I had the privilege of attending a symposium at theUniversity of Southern California entitled “The Art and Science ofGreat Teaching: Celebrating the Legacy of William Vennard.” As wecomplete the second decade of the twenty-first century, we cannottake for granted that younger teachers of singing are familiar withVennard and his work. Older generations (including mine) certain-ly are: the 1967 enlarged edition of his Singing: The Mechanism andthe Technic was virtually unrivaled as the standard voice pedagogytextbook in university classrooms for two decades, until it wasreplaced in many circles by Richard Miller’s The Structure of Singingin 1986. Vennard’s legacy looms large, and his treatise became afoundation for much of what came after it in the modern “fact-based” era of voice pedagogy. NYSTA’s Oren Lathrop Brown Pro-fessional Development Program is firmly grounded in the scientificvoice principles for which Vennard so passionately advocated. Forthose (perhaps younger) readers who are less familiar with Vennardand his work, I think it is worth it to take a few paragraphs to intro-duce Vennard and discuss his career and important contributions tovoice pedagogy.1

William Durham Vennard was born on January 31, 1909, in Normal,Illinois. He earned his first undergraduate degree in English atTaylor University in Upland, Indiana, in 1930. He later becameinterested in music (and singing opera in particular), and he earneda bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Northwestern Uni-versity in 1941 and a master’s degree in vocal performance from theAmerican Conservatory in Chicago in 1943. After several years offreelance work and part-time teaching, Vennard joined the faculty ofthe University of Southern California in 1946. He became chair ofthe voice department at USC in 1950, a position that he held untilhis death on January 10, 1971, in Los Angeles, California.

In addition to being a successful singing teacher and academic, Ven-nard was also extremely active in professional organizations, partic-ularly the National Association of Teachers of Singing, an organiza-tion which he served as president from 1964 to 1966. In a lengthytribute in the February/March 1971 issue of the NATS Bulletin,Karl Trump wrote:

[Vennard’s] work as a teacher of singing and vocal pedagogy, hisauthorship of an unsurpassed book on the singing voice and ofnumerous articles in the NATS Bulletin and other scholarly jour-nals, his interest in and his unique contribution to scientific re-search on the vocal mechanism as it applied to singing, and hismany appearances as lecturer and clinician all contributed to his

2

1 Portions of this message drawfrom an article that I recentlypublished in Voice and SpeechReview—“The Legacy of WilliamVennard and D. Ralph Appel-man and Their Influence onSinging Voice Pedagogy:Reflections after 50 Years (1967–2017)” (volume 11, no. 3, 2017).

The Art and Scienceof Great Teaching

Celebrating the Legacy of

WILLIAMVENNARD

Friday, May 18, 2018University of Southern California

Matthew Hoch

Vol. 16, no. 1, September--October 2018 NYSTA© 3

reputation both in America and wherever singing is studiedabroad. Each of us in NATS should grieve at the passing ofWilliam Vennard. For if ever one man embodied all that is bestin our profession and in our organization, he was that man. 2

Although Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic will always be Ven-nard’s primary legacy, he also collaborated with director Janwillemvan den Berg (1920–1985) on the film entitled Voice Production: TheVibrating Larynx, which won several awards in Europe. He wasawarded an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University in1970 for his contributions to singing and voice science.

The symposium at the University of Southern California celebratednot only Vennard’s contributions to our field, but also acknow-ledged the inauguration of the Vennard Collection: a new archive ofVennard’s personal writings, research files, and memorabilia. It wasfascinating to browse through these materials, which were on dis-play for all symposium attendees to examine during intervalsbetween sessions. Keynote speakers at the symposium includedStephen F. Austin, Kenneth Bozeman, Thomas F. Cleveland, CindyDewey, Lynn Helding, Scott McCoy, and Kari Ragan, all of whompresented lectures on various pedagogic topics.

While all of these speakers offered fascinating insights into twenty-first-century voice pedagogy, perhaps the most forward lookingwere the lectures by Helding and Ragan. Helding presented a ses-sion entitled “The Missing Mind: The Third Pillar of Voice Peda-gogy.” In it, she convincingly argued that singing voice researchover the past several decades has focused overwhelmingly onbiomechanics and acoustic theory, but the brain’s role in singing—including topics such as cognition, perception, procedural learning,neuroplasticity, and motor learning theory—has been a largelyneglected aspect of voice pedagogy. Ragan proposed a dynamicnew approach to the intersection of the interdisciplinary “voiceteam”—a term for the triumvirate core group consisting of thesinging teacher, speech-language pathologist, and otolaryngolo-gist—which she labels “Evidence-Based Voice Pedagogy.” The inter-disciplinary nature of our field has never been more front and center.

At the conclusion of the Friday symposium, forty pedagogues frominstitutions across North America remained for an additional twodays to discuss voice pedagogy curricula with the goal of produ-cing a white paper that would chart a course for the future. Throughbreakout sessions, small and large-group discussions, andcompromise, the following six questions were examined:

Question 1: Why Do We Teach Pedagogy?Question 2: What Skills Are [Should Be] Possessed by the Ideal Singing Teacher?Question 3: What Skills Are We Currently Teaching Well?Question 4: What Are Our Current Weaknesses?Question 5: Where Is the Profession Going and How Do We Serve It?Question 6: How Can We Move Forward Employing the “Best Practices” Model?

2 “In Memoriam: William D.Vennard, 1909–1971,” NATSBulletin 27, no. 3 (1971), 1.

William DurhamVennard (1909-1971)

Vol. 16, no. 1, September--October 2018 NYSTA©4

The resulting discussions were fascinating, in no small part due tothe collective minds present in the room—nothing short of a “Who’sWho?” list of living legends in the voice pedagogy world. Onetheme that strongly emerged was the ever-increasing inter-disciplinary nature of our field, which seems to grow more complexand expansive as each year passes. Brain research—the topic ofHelding’s lecture—for example, seems to reinvent itself with everypaper published. Thus, the “third pillar” of voice pedagogy is also amoving target.

As we examine curricula—like NYSTA’s Professional DevelopmentProgram core curriculum—these new topics will necessarily need tobe covered, as they are essential to our quest to more deeply under-stand the complexity of the human voice. Our field is still in its in-fancy, and our 2018 understanding of voice pedagogy is likely tolook in 2067 a lot like Vennard’s textbook—with its smudgy graypictures (which were state-of-the-art when the book was firstpublished)—looks to us today.

The history of singing voice pedagogy is something of a microcosmof the history of intellectual thought. The early Greek philosophersdabbled not only in philosophy, but also science, religion, mathe-matics, and a host of other topics. They were the great thinkers of theera, and all of these disciplines were young at the time. No mathe-matician studies “mathematics” (broadly) anymore—rather, theyspecialize. Polymaths like Vennard, Coffin, and Miller were pivotalfigures who left an indelible mark during the earliest years of thefact-based era, but the twenty-first century suggests that a newparadigm is necessary.

The ever-expanding body of knowledge makes it increasinglyimpractical—if not impossible—for a singing teacher to be up-to-date in all arenas, making it all the more necessary to rely on anetwork of voice professionals who collectively represent variousareas of expertise, including biomechanics, acoustic theory, psy-chology, cognition and perception, holistic practices, and all of therelated health and wellness fields that are the province of medicalprofessionals. The Big Bang of singing voice pedagogy continuesto expand at exponential speed.

If you have any thoughts on topics you would like the board ofdirectors to consider as we work through the process of updatingand expanding our core curriculum, please do not hesitate to contactme at [email protected]. I invite your help and input with theseendeavors as we work toward an exciting pedagogic future.

Sincerely,

Matthew Hoch, DMA

President, New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA)


EDITOR’S MESSAGEWhat I did on Summer Vacation,and Some Thoughts on Advocacy

Dear Colleagues,

As I write this, the first days of school are quickly approaching,and I admit to feeling that it’s a race against time to finish allmy summer projects, both professional and personal. In June, Iattended the first block of the Summer Vocology Institute, avoice science training program run by the incomparable IngoTitze. It was a transformative experience, one which I highlyrecommend, and I hope to return in future summers to completethe program. I spent most of July teaching—not voice, but worldmusic!—at beautiful Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. Itwas a nice change of pace, and reminded me how much beau-tiful music exists in our world. I’ve also been busily preparing asong cycle by Norwegian composer Johan Kvandal for a per-formance with Matti Hirvonen at the Nordic Music Festival inOshkosh in October.

By the time this issue is released and you’re reading it, I hopeyou’ve accomplished all your summer goals, and you’re readyto return to the studio, the university, or the stage.

I recently read a contentious exchange on a Facebook forum forprofessional voice teachers. This has me thinking again abouthow we all have to work together. I would like to suggest thatwe all work as advocates for good teaching and for goodteachers, and for professional, respectful, and factual exchangeof ideas. As voice teachers, we take on many roles. Our contrib-utors in this issue provide us with ideas for—and reasonsbehind—using music for advocacy in various contexts.

Will there always be some “bad” teachers of voice? Surely—just as there will always be poor doctors, mathematicians,professors, secretaries, writers, journalists, etc. But we do ourdiscipline no favors by using a broad brush to paint one groupof teachers—based on the genres and styles they teach or the set-ting in which they teach—as better or worse than other groups.

NYSTA has long welcomed members from varied backgroundsin our discipline: those with formal/advanced education, andthose who have learned primarily “in the trenches” as artists;those who have focused primarily on classical music, those who

5

Anna Hersey

Volume 16, No. 1

Dr. Anna HerseyEditor-in-Chief

Dr. Loralee SongerAssociate Editor

Dr. Ian HowellAssociate Editor

John OstendorfDesigner

VOICEPrints


The NYSTA Board of Directors has appointed acommittee to select the officers for the 2020–2023term. Open positions include President, FirstVice President (membership), Second VicePresident (professional development), Secretary,and Treasurer. Nominated individuals must beNYSTA members in good standing. Please sendall names, with a short recommendation state-ment, to Matthew Hoch at [email protected] by

October 15, 2018.

Nomination Announcement forNYSTA’s Board of Directors 2020-2023

excel at CCM styles, and those among us who are able to docrossover work in both areas; those whose pedagogical back-ground has focused on technique, and those who work as musicalcoaches. Our PDP offerings and yearly events have featured avariety of presenters from all areas of our discipline, fromacademia, to the commercial music industry, to Carnegie Hall.

I yearn for the day when our discipline can be unified in thepursuit of good singing and good teaching. As we begin againthis fall, let us all resolve to support each other in becoming thebest teachers we can be, regardless of setting or genre.

Anna HerseyEditor-in-Chief

6


2018--2019 EVENTS CALENDAR

7

Fall Season Opening Event & Reception

Josephine Mongiardo Great Coaches SeriesMaster Class with Soprano Jennifer Rowley(appearing courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera)

Sunday, October 14, 2018 4:00-6:00 PM EDTMarc Scorca Hall at National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYC

Free for NYSTA members, students, and guests. Donations welcome.Four singers will be selected to present two operatic arias for Ms.Rowley. See Call for Singers (page 8) for application information.

Holiday Event & Reception

Master Class with John BucchinoSunday, December 2, 2018 6:00-8:00 PM ESTMarc Scorca Hall at National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYCFree for NYSTA members, students, and guests. Donations welcome.Mr. Bucchino will work on his compositions with five singers on hiscompositions. Suggested song list will be posted on NYSTA website. SeeCall for Singers (page 8) for application information.

Winter Event with Live-Streaming

Complete Vocal Fitness with Claudia Friedlander:Laryngeal and Articulatory FunctionSunday, February 24, 2019 4:00-6:00 PM ESTPearl Studios, 500 Eighth Avenue, NYCFree for NYSTA members, students, and guests. Donations welcome.This workshop offers a practical overview of laryngeal and articulatoryanatomy and function without a bias for any particular approach totechnique. Four participants of varying voice types and level of exper-ience will be selected. Interested singers should send their resume,photo and audio or video recordings of 2 contrasting selections [email protected] by January 24

Spring Event

College Audition Workshop with lorraine NubarSunday, April 28, 2019 3:30--5:30 PM EDT

Pearl Studios, 500 Eighth Avenue, NYCFree for NYSTA members, students and guests. Donations welcome.In our first event specifically designed for high school voice students,Lorraine Nubar from the Juilliard School’s Pre College will work withfive singers on how to prepare for your college entrance auditions.Interested highschool sophomores and juniors should send their resume,photo and audio/video recordings of 2 contrasting selections [email protected] by March 28..

© F

amou

s St

udio

s


On-Demand Learningwith Dr. Scott McCoy

Study 24/7 at your convenience. Startanytime and receive four months of access.

NYSTA’S OREN LATHROP BROWNPROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

presents

VOCAL ANATOMYAND PHYSIOLOGY

This user-friendly course offers a detailedexploration of the major physiological

systems of the singing voice. Muscularsystems and topics covered include:

Respiration, Phonation, Articulation,Laryngeal Function, & Resonance.

Register at WWW.NYST.ORGFor information, contact NYSTA’s

Professional Development Program DirectorFelix Graham at [email protected].

CALL FOR SINGERS:Singers will be selected to perform in each of the two upcoming masterclasses.To be considered, send the following materials to [email protected].

Josephine Mongiardo Great Coaches Series Masterclass with Soprano Jennifer RowleySunday, October 14, 2018, 4-6 PM EDT Marc Scorca Hall at National Opera Center, NYC

Submission Deadline: September 14, 2018

■ Resume ■ Photo ■ Audio/Video recordings of two contrasting opera arias

Master Class with John BucchinoSunday, December 2, 2018, 6-8 PM EST Marc Scorca Hall at National Opera Center, NYC

Submission Deadline: November 3, 2018

■ Resume ■ Photo ■ Audio/Video recordings of two songs by John Bucchino(suggested song list will be posted on NYSTA website after September 1, 2018)

Since its earliest years, NYSTA has sought to foster standards inthe profession. In the 1920s and 1930s, the organization led effortsto require certification by the New York State government for allvoice teachers. While state certification was never implemented,its intent came to fruition with the establishment of our Profes-sional Development Program (PDP). The program was guided bynoted pedagogue Oren Lathrop Brown, and spearheaded by pastNYSTA President Janet Pranschke. Thanks to the continued ef-forts of Past President David Sabella, online courses were devel-oped in 2007. Every year, the NYSTA board strives to bring newand innovative courses to all interested in learning more aboutthe teaching of singing, bringing the most up-to-date informationand filling the gaps that may be missed by traditional pedagogyclasses. Currently, 48 people have earned the honor of being aNYSTA Distinguished Voice Professional.

NYSTA’s Professional Development courses are led by topexperts in the areas of voice pedagogy and voice health. Thecourses are designed to give a well-rounded education to thosewanting to learn more about fact-based teaching of singing.After completing the five core courses (Vocal Anatomy andPhysiology, Voice Acoustics and Resonance, Vocal Health forVoice Professionals, Singer’s Developmental Repertoire, andComparative Pedagogy) and successfully passing the exams,registrants earn a Certificate of Completion and the honor ofbeing a NYSTA Distinguished Voice Professional. Congratula-tions to all those who have earned this honor!

NYSTA Professional Development Program


THE VOICE TEACHER AS ADVOCATE:MAKING A CASE FOR ARTS INTEGRATION

by Nathan Krueger

As singing teachers, we want the best for our students. We guide themin obtaining a healthy and sustainable technique for a career in singing.We help them in gain entry into the college or conservatory of theirchoice, steer them through the competitive auditions of young artistprograms, or even help the dedicated avocational land a role in a com-munity theater production. In short, we work with them to help themreach their goals. Sometimes these goals vary widely and we try to beas well rounded as we can to meet all of their needs. We advocate forour students on an individual level. But what would it look like for ourcommunity of teachers to advocate for our art as well as for our stu-dents? How can we advocate for our art form, to our students, and toour communities? There are multiple ways that we can be advocates forour art form and provide leadership in this area.

What is Arts Advocacy?Merriam Webster defines advocacy as “the act or process of supportinga cause or proposal: the act or process of advocating.”1 At the most basiclevel, singing arts advocates promote the importance of singing and thestudy of singing technique. We represent the art of singing to the com-munities in which we work. We speak for the art and speak to its valueto our communities, and to the individuals who practice this art. All ofthis comes with a great responsibility and with considerable challenges.

An important avenue for promoting our art can be as outreach per-forming artists. I have performed outreach throughout my career as ateacher and singer, and I have found it extremely rewarding. Performingoutreach concerts in the early part of my career was a way of paying mydues, and for many young singers this is a practical way to earn moneyand make connections as they develop as performers. Most of this workis done in the form of outreach by opera companies and other profes-sional music organizations. For classical singers, this usually meansbringing performances of operatic repertoire designed for children(either children’s operas or condensed versions of operas) into theschools in the communities they serve. Opera companies view it as away to develop audiences from the ground up. There are programs likeOpera for the Young, based in Madison, Wisconsin, that design theirtouring productions to be interactive. These productions include acomponent in which students in each school participate on stage inthe performance.

1 “Advocacy,” Merriam-Webster.com; https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/advocacy (accessed July 15,2018).


Arts IntegrationAnother opportunity for advocating for the singing arts is workingas a teaching artist in arts integration. Teaching artists define them-selves in many ways. They are often also known as a “visiting artist”or “resident artist.” Eric Booth writes, “A teaching artist is a prac-ticing artist who develops the skills, curiosities, and habits of mind ofan educator, in order to achieve a wide variety of learning goals in,through, and about the arts, with a wide variety of learners.”2

Depending on the situation, the role of a teaching artist can differ, butone of the greatest benefits is the consistency with which students areexposed to the arts and how they are connected to other subjects thestudents are learning.

I first worked as a teaching artist in the Tucson Unified SchoolDistrict’s Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) program.One of the goals of OMA is to “integrate arts education with corecurriculum.”3 For those new to arts integration, a clear definition wasdeveloped by the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Throughthe Arts (CETA) program. It states that “Arts Integration is an ap-proach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrateunderstanding through an art form. Students engage in a creativeprocess which connects an art form and another subject area andmeets evolving objectives in both.”

As an opera artist, I worked on a team with another singer and apianist. We collaborated with first grade classroom teachers todevelop lesson plans for their classrooms, integrating music anddrama with language acquisition and writing skills. Prior to thisexperience, I did not have any formal training in arts integrationtechniques or music education, and no experience working in a firstgrade classroom. I was strictly a classical singer, but one who wasflexible and who possessed a certain intellectual curiosity. Withexcellent mentoring and professional development, I was able totranslate my performance skills into the teaching skills I neededto become an effective teaching artist. The Tucson OMA programafforded a considerable amount of time in the classroom. As operaticartists, we went into the homeroom, not the music classroom, twice aweek for an entire year. The end project was a short opera that thestudents wrote and performed using the skills they acquired through-out the year.

From an arts advocacy perspective, we were getting in on the groundlevel. First grade students throughout the school district were ex-posed to operatic singing in their own classrooms and they activelyused the terminology they learned in creating their own operas. Theyalso had the opportunity to experience an opera at the University ofArizona, and because they had the background information neces-sary to consume the performance, they were an attentive audience.Often they were disappointed that they had to leave at intermission,because they knew the plot and had improvised their own recitative

2 Eric Booth, “A New Frame-work for Understanding the‘Teaching Artist’ Field,” http://ericbooth.net/a-new-frame-work-for-understanding-the-teaching-artist-field/(accessed July 18, 2018).

3 Tuscon Unified SchoolDistrict, “Opening MindsThrough the Arts,” http://www.tusd1.org/Departments/OMA (accessedJuly 18, 2018).

4 University of WisconsinOshkosh, “ArtsCore,” https://www.uwosh.edu/artscore(accessed July 18, 2018).


conversation based on the characters they saw on stage. Since Iworked in the program for five years, it was gratifying to see formerstudents talk about the upcoming first grade opera performanceseach spring and hear them recall songs from their own operas.

The arts integration component is worthy of further exploration,especially in teaming universities and colleges with the schoolsystem. As teaching artists, we ourselves can work with teachers tointegrate the principles of singing performance with other classroomsubjects. Four years ago, my colleagues at University of WisconsinOshkosh, Dr. Wendy Strauch-Nelson (art education) and Dr. LouisChicquette (special and early childhood education) secured a sizablegrant to “help pre-service and early career teachers build competenceand resiliency through the thoughtful use of arts integration.” Withthe support of the grant, called ArtsCore, and through a partnershipwith a local arts organization, The Paine Art Center and Gardens, aprofessional development program for early career teachers wascreated.4 I was excited to come on board to help plan music inte-gration activities. I developed introductory workshops for classroomteachers to approach music and singing from their own comfort andexperience level via an in-depth workshop I call “Operafy YourStory.” This workshop helps teachers set a framework for the use ofrecitatives, arias, and ensembles to recreate stories or timelines theyare working on in various subjects. For the past three years, I havebeen working closely with cohorts of early career teachers, helpingthem gain skills to integrate music in their classrooms. The feedbackI receive about the Operafy lesson plan is inspiring. It’s wonderful tohear instances of classroom teachers introducing the basic dramaticprinciples of opera in the classroom, integrating what students arealready learning in other subjects.

As we teach our students the most efficient way to sing and tocommunicate with an audience, we must also instill the importanceof being a representative of our art form. Singing is worthy of studyand practice, but it should also be shared with our communities as awhole. It brings people together, and we have a responsibility to beadvocates for the singing arts. Think about what is happening inyour community. What are ways that you can connect? Encourageyour students to see the value in performing outreach. Learn aboutopportunities for teaching artists in your area and become familiarwith what the public schools already have in place, or take the ini-tiative to establish a program where one does not exist. Challengeyourself to be a leader in your community and know that taking onextra responsibility is what it means to be an advocate for the arts.

Nathan Krueger, DMA, is asso-ciate professor of music at the Uni-versity of Wisconsin Oshkosh,where he is coordinator of the voicearea and teaches voice and opera.He holds degrees from University ofNew Mexico (MM), the Universityof Arizona (DMA), as well as UWOshkosh (BM). He made his Carne-gie Hall debut this past spring andsings regularly in Wisconsin withthe Florentine Opera in Milwaukeeand the Madison Choral Project. Hehas also performed with the SantaFe Opera, Madison Bach Musi-cians, Milwaukee Opera Theatre,and Arizona Opera.

He has served on the WisconsinNATS board and been coordinatorfor of the Wisconsin NATS chapterauditions for the past three years.He worked as a teaching artist inthe Tucson Unified School District’sOpening Minds through the Arts(OMA) program for five years andserves as the co-principal investi-gator of the ArtsCore grant at UWOshkosh. He employs his experienceas a teaching artist to create arts-integrated professional develop-ment for early career teachers ofall subjects.


SINGING FOR A NEW WORLD:HOW VOICE CAN SAVE THE CULTURE

By John Nix, Lynn Helding, Erin Guinup,Constanza Roeder, and Allen Henderson

What drew you to a life of teaching and performing? Formany of you, you probably had an experience of beingwith other people and singing. Perhaps it was with familymembers, or a moment on stage in a high school musical, orsinging in a school or church choir concert. There was some-thing in that experience of singing together with others thatwas life changing—and you realized what you had to dowith your life.

When we sing together, we not only have to sing our ownparts, but we also have to listen to and coordinate our sing-ing with the other people performing at that time. It is ashared experience, and a very “in-the-moment” activity. Wefeel most alive when we are engaged in emotionally impor-tant, in-the-moment activities.

Singing with others has many well-established health, social,and spiritual benefits. Health benefit examples include thework of Dr. Stephen Clift, who has helped Chronic Ob-structive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients increase lungfunction through singing classes,1 and that of Drs. LindaMaguire and Jane Flinn, who are finding benefits of singingfor Alzheimer’s patients.2 Social and spiritual benefitexamples abound: Drs. Betty Bailey and Jane Davidsonstudied a Montreal choir comprised of homeless men; thesemen regarded the choir as the most meaningful thing intheir lives.3 On a societal level, group singing of spiritualswas a unifying force for U.S. civil rights advocates. MartinLuther King noted: “The freedom songs are playing a strongand vital role in our struggle.”4 This unifying effect ofcommunal singing was evident as President Obama led“Amazing Grace” at the funeral of State Senator ClementaPinckney, one of the victims of Charleston, South Carolina’sEmmanuel Church shooting. 5

Many of the health, social, societal, and spiritual benefits ofsinging mentioned above may be linked to the formation ofempathy in those who sing together. Empathy is defined as“the ability to feel the experience of others separate fromoneself.” A recent study produced neural evidence of em-pathy’s existence in the brain, catapulting it to one of the

1 Stephen Clift, Ian Morrison, AnnSkingley, Sonia Page, Simon Coulton,Pauline Treadwell, Trish Vella-Burrows,Isobel Salisbury, and Matthew Shipton,“An evaluation of community singing forpeople with COPD (Chronic ObstructivePulmonary Disease),” Sidney de HaanResearch Centre for Arts and Health ofCanterbury Christ Church University,June 2013, https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/health-and-wellbeing/sidney-de-haan-research-centre/documents/Singing-and-COPD-Final-report.pdf (accessed January 1, 2018).2 Josie Glausiusz, “Music and Dementia:Group singing sessions are found toimprove cognition,” The American Scholar(February 25, 2015) https://theamerican-scholar.org/music-and-dementia/# (accessedJanuary 1, 2018)3 Betty A. Bailey and Jane W. Davidson,“Adaptive Characteristics of GroupSinging: Perceptions from Members ofa Choir for Homeless Men,” MusicaeScientiae 6:2 (September 1, 2002): 221-256,http://journals.sage-pub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/102986490200600206 (accessed January 1,2018).4 “Hope for America: Performers, Politicsand Pop Culture,” Library of CongressExhibition, opened June 11, 2010, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/hope-for-america/political-songs.html (accessed January 1,2018).5 President Barack Obama, Eulogy forReverend and State Senator ClementaPinckney, June 26, 2015, https://www.c-span.org/video/?326769-1/funeral-service-sc-state-senator-clementa-pinckney (accessedJanuary 1, 2018).


hottest topics in social neuroscience. Sociologists have longnoted the pro-social benefits of empathy, such as self-lessness and honesty, so a recent study which noted sharpdrops in measures of “empathic concern” was receivedwith alarm, causing experts to warn of an “endangeredemotion,” and a cultural “empathy deficit.” Several curesfor this societal ill have been put forward by social psychol-ogists, including reclaiming the art of conversation, andengagement with art. Assuming that voice has the power toinduce emotion, and emotion is a cornerstone of empathy,and empathy is, in turn, a bedrock of a civilized society, theauthors wish to encourage NYSTA members to inculcategroup singing back into our culture and hopefully instillempathy among both singers and listeners. We believecommunal singing can be a factor in creating healthy,socially connected, understanding, and hopefully lessviolent communities.

In some communities in America, singing is being used tobring people together. Here are just a few examples:

The Tacoma Refugee Choir(http://refugeechoir.org), led by author Erin Guinup, hasthe motto “It’s hard to not love people when you singtogether.” United in compassion for the plight of refugees,choir members come from all walks of life including long-time residents of the city and recent refugees and immi-grants. The Tacoma Refugee Choir has welcomed over 160people from 24 countries of origin to rehearsals in its firstyear. Powerful relationships develop through the singingand camaraderie, with one man saying, “I have been inthe U.S. for four months and never felt welcomed untiltonight.” The choir aims to spread a message of hope andkindness and emphasize that all voices are needed andcan contribute to greater harmony in our community. Byincluding a communal singing element in all of the group’sevents, the Tacoma Refugee Choir hopes to transitionattendees from consumers of art to participants and crea-tors so that they reap the benefits of singing without judge-ment and feel greater empathy for all in our community.

Hearts Need ArtIn San Antonio, Hearts Need Art (http://heartsneedart.com),led by author Constanza Roeder, uses the arts to alleviatefeelings of isolation and suffering in adult cancer patientsand their families in the hospital. The organization pro-vides Bedside Music, Gentle Movement and Meditation,Art Classes, and a Corridor Concert Series. High schoolchoirs, church choirs, private voice studios, and pro-

Erin Guinup is anactive concert per-former, conductor,voice teacher, andpublic speaker. Shehas performed awide range of oper-atic and musicaltheater repertoirewith ensembles

including Northwest Repertory Singers,Ensign Symphony, and Tacoma ConcertBand. Her students have appeared onBroadway, in regional theater and operaticstages, and on The Voice, American Idoland America’s Got Talent. Erin is conductorof the Tacoma Refugee Choir. Her workshopsguide teams and Fortune 100 companies toencourage healthy communication andteamwork as individuals find their voices,figuratively and physically, and she hasworked with speakers for TEDx talks andpresentations for major corporations.

Constanza AileenRoeder is founderand executive dir-ector of HeartsNeed Art: CreativeSupport for Adultswith Cancer. Asurvivor of adol-escent leukemia, sheuses her personal

experience with cancer and her music back-ground to bring the healing power of the artsto cancer patients and their families. Roeder’sstage credits include such roles as Cosette(Les Misérables), Clara (Light in thePiazza), Laurey (Oklahoma), and Maggie(A Chorus Line), but her favorite gig hasalways been singing for cancer patients inthe hospital. She earned her degree in vocalperformance from Bethany University,graduated from the CCM Vocal PedagogyInstitute at Shenandoah University, and islevel three certified in Somatic Voicework, theLoVetri Method. Ms. Roeder maintains avibrant voice studio, specializing in musicaltheater and CCM singing.


fessional musicians from the community participate inthe Corridor Concert Series. The experience opens the eyesand hearts of the singers, fostering empathy and a passion tocreate positive change in the lives of cancer patients in theircommunity. In all concerts, performers encourage groupsinging. In 2017, Hearts Need Art provided healing artexperiences to over 1,100 cancer patents, family members,and caregivers in the hospital. On average, those who par-ticipate show a 39% reduction in pain, a 61% reductionin anxiety symptoms, and a 39% reduction in depressivesymptoms. When patients, family members, and staff singand laugh together, the sterile walls of fear and isolationbreak down. Patients are no longer a diagnosis, familymembers are no longer caregivers, and the staff are notdefined by the color of their scrubs.

America Sings Together on M.L.K. DayAmerica Sings Together on M.L.K. Day (https://www.face-book.com/events/383929255378975/), led by author John Nix,seeks to unite persons across the country in a moment ofcommunal singing on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Par-ticipants of all races, religions, and orientations join togetherin cities nationwide at 11:00 AM in their respective timezones to sing the traditional hymn “Amazing Grace.” Theevent honors Dr. King, who led the nation-changing civilrights movement in the 1950s and 60s. Many of the concernsraised by King are still serious problems. As musicians, wehave a special role in making King’s “Dream” a reality forall Americans. After all, at the climax of his famous speech,what did King say? “…When all of God’s children, blackmen and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants andCatholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words ofthe old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank GodAlmighty, we are free at last!” You may be asking, “What canI do?” Here are a few practical ideas for NYSTA members totry in their own communities. The emphasis in each activitybelow is to lead people in song as well as perform for them:

■ When you perform or have choirs you lead or solo artistsyou teach, give performances, program a participatory songor two at the end of the concert. Invite the audience to singalong. Print the words in the program.

■ Take your students and choirs to public places, flash-mobstyle, and spontaneously start songs.

■ Encourage sing-alongs of popular songs of various genresat ballgames, other sporting events, community celebrations(town Fourth of July picnics, etc.); in churches; at retirementcenters; in hospitals; on military bases; on reservations.

Tenor John Nixis professor ofvoice and voicepedagogy at TheUniversity ofTexas at San An-tonio. He hastaught at TheUniversity ofColorado Denver,Eastern New

Mexico University, and worked for four yearsat the National Center for Voice and Speechwith Ingo Titze. He holds degrees from theUniversity of Georgia, Florida State Univer-sity, University of Colorado, and a VocologyCertificate from the University of Iowa. Hehas won grants from The Grammy Founda-tion and NIH, and was awarded the 2006Van Lawrence Award. He has published morethan 35 articles and edited or contributed tofive books, including the forthcoming OxfordHandbook of Singing.

Lynn Helding isprofessor of practicein vocal arts andcoordinator ofvocology and voicepedagogy at theUniversity ofSouthern CaliforniaThornton School ofMusic. She is anassociate editor of

the Journal of Singing and author of TheMindful Musician: Teaching, Learning andPerformance in the Age of Brain Science.Her voice science honors include the 2005 VanL. Lawrence Fellowship awarded to researchneurological voice pathologies, and her electionto chair the founding of the first non-profitvocology association, PAVA, incorporated in2014. Helding studied voice at the Universityof Montana with Esther England, in Vienna,Austria with Kammersänger Otto Edelmann,and at Indiana University. She currentlyserves on the advisory boards of PAVA and the NATS Voice Science Committee.


■ Engage popular artists you work with to do sing-alongsat concerts.■ Encourage opera companies and theaters to use curtaincalls to invite audiences to sing together with the cast.

We would like to close with a challenge for NYSTA mem-bers. The authors believe the time is right for all singingorganizations (NYSTA, NATS, ACDA, AGO, etc.) to lead arenewal of group singing in the Americas. We believe, asperformers, teachers of singing, and directors of choirs, thatwe have a vested interest in encouraging more people tosing: from where will the students, audiences, and singers ofthe future come? We also believe that there is a real need formore empathetic, informed citizens: as Martin Luther Kingsaid, “[Songs] give the people new courage and a sense ofunity… they keep alive a faith, a radiant hope in the future,particularly in our most trying hours.” Finally, we believeno one is better equipped than the members of NYSTA,NATS, ACDA, and AGO to lead this effort.

NATS executivedirector, baritoneAllen Hendersonis professor ofmusic at GeorgiaSouthern Univer-sity where heteaches voice anddiction. He holds abachelor’s degree

from Carson Newman College, a master’sdegree from the University of Tennessee,and a doctorate from the College-Conserva-tory of Music at the University of Cincin-nati. He has appeared in concert, opera,and oratorio with the Knoxville Opera,Fort Worth Opera, Cincinnati ChamberOrchestra, Tennessee Opera Theatre,Knoxville Symphony, Nashville Sym-phony, Bach Aria Festival, and Chautau-qua Institution, at Lincoln Center for theMozart bicentennial and at the RaviniaFestival. A district winner and regionalfinalist in the Metropolitan Opera audi-tions, he has won many other awards andhas also presented recitals and masterclasses at universities nationwide.

As director of opera at Austin Peay StateUniversity, Henderson produced fullproductions of Le nozze di Figaro,Die Fledermaus, Candide, Troublein Tahiti, and Trial By Jury. He can beheard on recordings of chamber operasby Schweizer and Shepherd on AeolianRecords’ Dimensions, and on his worldpremiere recording with guitarist StanleyYates, Shadows, featuring works by JohnRutter, Michael Fink, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco.


1 Casey McGrath, Karin Hen-dricks, and Tawnya Smith,Performance Anxiety Strategies:A Musician’s Guide to ManagingStage Fright (Lanham, MD:Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), vii.

2 Ibid., 1.

CaseyMcGrath

BOOK REVIEW: Performance Anxiety Strategies:A Musician’s Guide to Managing Stage Fright

Casey McGrath, Karin Hendricks, Tawnya SmithRowman & Littlefield, 2017.

Review by Susan Williams

Every experienced performer knows the thrill of connectingwith an enrapt audience, as well as receiving the applause thatfollows. Oftentimes, these peak experiences are what furtherdrive artists to hone their craft and continue to perform at highlevels. And yet the highs come with lows, and we performers arealso familiar with feelings of anxiety that creep in when a per-formance is especially pressure-filled, or when circumstanceshave prevented us from feeling as if we are doing our best work.

How to negotiate these moments of inevitable anxiety is the focusof a new book—Performance Anxiety Strategies: A Musician’s Guideto Managing Stage Fright—by authors Casey McGrath, KarinHendricks, and Tawnya Smith. The authors define the desiredoutcome of “flow” in music performance as a “state where con-cern for consequence and others’ opinions are upstaged by anoverwhelming sense of fascination and enjoyment.”1 They pro-pose the question: what is the formula for achieving or opti-mizing this state? The authors’ examination of this foundationalpremise has generated a book valuable for musician and musiceducator alike, especially in the event one has personally dealtwith music performance anxiety (MPA), or taught studentsdealing with it. Although research cited by the authors suggests15-25% of performers experience MPA,2 those of us who performand work with students might estimate that the number issignificantly higher. Indeed, the designation of MPA does notencompass the mild anxiety every performer will experience atsome point during his or her career. Although this book isintended to introduce strategies to accompany the diagnosis ofmusic performance anxiety, anyone who experiences even mildperformance anxiety may benefit from the information pre-sented. The authors are careful to provide a disclaimer that theinformation in the book is intended as a guide and not asubstitute for appropriate medical advice.

The book starts by defining music performance anxiety andcalls for an open discussion surrounding MPA that cuts throughcultural stigma surrounding mental health. From there, theauthors logically and systematically work their way throughmany topics, first confronting the question of why performersexperience MPA. Several subsequent chapters are devoted toexploring the plentiful and multifaceted treatment optionsavailable today. Each treatment method is defined (e.g. medi-

KarinHendricks

TawnyaSmith


cations, cognitive behavioral therapies, holistic methods, andexpressive arts therapies, etc.), always referencing currentresearch, and the authors provide enough information for thereader to have a sense of the techniques and methods. Theextensive bibliography provides ample resources to consultfor exploration of a treatment in greater detail. There are alsowritten and guided activity exercises, which provide practicalassistance as a starting point. For example, chapter two offersa “Thought Journal Exercise” with reflection questions anddirection to notice one’s own judgment. The potential benefitfrom such an exercise arises from noticing or defining thethought patterns that precede or feed performance anxiety.The answers can then be used as a starting point to identifytriggers and outline necessary changes.

Chapter three delves into cognitive behavioral therapiessuch as rational emotive therapy (RET), schema therapy,hypnotherapy, progressive muscular relaxation, electro-myographic biofeedback, and eye movement desensitizationand reprocessing (EMDR), a newer psychotherapeuticintervention strategy that uses eye movements to reorganizememories and lessen their emotional influence.3 The chapterends with an “affirmations” activity, an exercise for assistingperformers in creating new thought patterns, and instructs howthe activity can be integrated into practice.

Chapter four discusses exposure therapy, the act of per-forming itself as “antidote” to MPA.4 Prescription medicationsare examined in chapter five, including both beta-blockersand anti-anxiety medication. The authors address controversysurrounding these medicines, such as concerns regardingdampening the artistic spirit or creating an unfair advantagein a highly competitive field. They tackle the subject with awell-balanced approach, including opinions both in favor ofand against their usage. Subsequently, holistic methods,including emotional freedom technique (EFT, or tapping),yoga, acupuncture, Feldenkreis, Alexander Technique,massage, meditation, and breath work are touched upon inchapter six. The authors describe the general benefit of theseintegrative techniques as being “grounded in maintaining ageneral state of well-being and aiding the body’s own naturalhealing process.”5

Chapter seven’s topic is expressive arts therapies such as arttherapy, music therapy, and guided imagery, highlighting thepotential for a non-linguistic approach to assist with the musi-cal art form. Chapter eight is devoted entirely to how teacherscan assist in preventing music performance anxiety in theirstudents. It gives examples of statements that could be eitherbenign or hampering for the student and addresses howreframing them could yield a more fruitful response.

3 Ibid., 45.4 Ibid., 61.5 Ibid., 83.6 Christopher Arneson,“Performance Anxiety: ATwenty-First CenturyPerspective, “Journal of Singing,May 2010; Lynn Helding,“Mindful Voice: Music Perform-ance Anxiety, “Journal of Singing,August 2016; Heather WinterHunnicut and Scott A. Winter,“Musical Performance Anxiety:Adapting Psychotherapy Tech-niques of Desensitization to theVoice Studio, Part 1,“ Journal ofSinging, January 2011; HeatherWinter Hunnicut and Scott A.Winter,“Musical PerformanceAnxiety: Adapting Psycho-therapy Techniques of CognitiveRestructuring to the VoiceStudio, Part 2,“ Journal ofSinging, March 2011; HeatherWinter Hunnicut and Scott A.Winter, “Musical PerformanceAnxiety: Adapting MultipleCognitive Behavior TherapyTechniques to the Voice Studio,Part 3,“Journal of Singing,September 2011; GwendolynWalker and Cody Commander,“The Emotionally PreparedSinger” Journal of Singing,January 2017. The subject wasalso the focus of the April 15,2018 SNATS chat.


Music pedagogues who are performers naturally desire toaid their students to the best of their ability. The authorsstress that while most pedagogues are not medical doctors orlicensed counselors, they can be cognizant of their choice oflanguage in the studio and classroom, and ask questions toavoid creating or worsening a problem. They argue thatgood teachers should lead students to viable solutions,especially when a situation calls for the help of a medicalprofessional. Many chapters conclude with short statementsby accomplished professional performers who share theirown experiences and offer advice for working with anxiety, aproactive display evincing the authors’ desire to foster opendialogue and lessen the potential stigma attached to MPA.

In particular, the comprehensive bibliography is an excellentresource, as is chapter nine, “Self-Help Books and Other Re-sources,” an annotated collection of other potentially helpfulresources. Despite the breadth of the bibliography, referenceto articles published on the topic in the Journal of Singing, sixof which have appeared since 2010 6, is notably absent. Theprimarily instrumental background of the authors may bethe explanation for this omission.

Ultimately, the competitive, multifaceted, and complex per-sonal nature of the professional music field ensures that theproblem of Music Performance Anxiety will continue to be atopic of interest in the future. Performance Anxiety Strategies isan empowering resource for the budding musician, theexperienced professional, and educator alike.

Susan Williams, soprano, was appointedassistant professor of Voice at the Univer-sity of Alabama in 2013. She has performednationally and internationally in a widerange of leading opera roles and as a vocalsoloist, with the Duke Symphony, OperaBirmingham, Cleveland Opera, and, underthe baton of Franz Welser-Möst, with theCleveland Orchestra. She has been a soloistwith the Tuscaloosa Symphony, AkronSymphony, Cleveland Pops Orchestra,and the Cleveland Bach Consort. In Graz,Austria, she sang Mozart’s CoronationMass and was a finalist in the Meister-singer Competition at the AmericanInstitute of Musical Studies. A graduate ofBirmingham-Southern College, she earnedthe master’s degree at the University ofAkron, and the Doctor of Musical Artsdegree at the Cleveland Institute of Music.At Vanderbilt University, she was a 2013member of the prestigious NATS intern-ship program where she worked underKenneth Bozeman. Her scholarly interestsinclude using body movement systems andthe use of virtual anatomy to enhancestudent learning in the studio. Her article“3D Virtual Anatomy Technology in theVoice Studio: A Pilot Study to Evaluate theFunctionality and Limitations of VisibleBody®” can be found in the Journal ofSinging Volume 69, Number 4, March/April 2013.


Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy, by Kenneth Bozeman, is the follow-up to the author’s first book, Practical Vocal Acoustics.1 Thefundamentals of acoustic registration in PVA changed every-thing about my understanding of sound and vocal technique.It has quickly become the go-to text for acoustic voice peda-gogy. In Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy, Bozeman shows how toeffectively apply voice acoustics in the voice studio. This newwork provides a bridge between voice science and the somaticexperience of singing. It also demystifies and enhances manyof the subjective and kinesthetic aspects of singing. Don’tlet the relatively brief (87-page) volume fool you: it is well-organized and packed full of insightful directions andexplanations. It also offers a look into the teaching mind ofsomeone who, for over 30 years, has sought to combinehistoric pedagogy, contemporary voice acoustics, and theinnate responses of the human psyche into a comprehensive,evidence-based voice pedagogy. His passion for voice peda-gogy and the human voice is evident throughout this text.

As voice teachers know, there is voice science, and then thereis the art of teaching. Bozeman demonstrates how science caninform, celebrate, and empower the art of teaching voice. Hedoes this by building metaphors and directives on principlesof voice science and voice acoustics. Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogytranslates acoustic, evidence-based voice pedagogy intosimple, relatable metaphors. It also provides exercises anddemonstrations for use in the voice studio. These includedirectives for beneficial pre-tuning of the vocal tract, acousticinterpretation of historic Italian bel canto pedagogy, andconcise comparisons between teaching treble and non-treblestudents in both classical and contemporary styles.

While the author points out that KVP will be most beneficialto readers who have digested the concepts laid out in hisprevious book, many ideas in this new book are also applic-able for readers who haven’t fully internalized the concepts ofacoustic registration. In particular, the chapters on emotionalaffect and re-mapping the open throat can be used withoutwading too deeply into voice acoustics.

Bozeman lays out a unifying principle based on emotionalexpression and the urge to communicate. Affective expres-

BOOK REVIEW: Kinesthetic Voice Pedagogy:Motivating Acoustic Efficiency

Kenneth W. BozemanInside View Press, 2017

Review by Chadley Ballentyne

1 Kenneth Bozeman,Practical VocalAcoustics: PedagogicalApplications forTeachers and Singers(Hillsdale, NewYork: Pendragon,2013).


sion can influence vocal tract alignment. He details how totune the vocal tract during inhalation and before phonationthrough authentically motivated affect. Emotion is thereforeessential to efficiently and fully realizing a singing techniqueinformed by acoustic voice pedagogy. By combining anat-omy, body mapping, and novel ways of discerning the con-figuration of the vocal tract, the author gives new insightand precision to the concept of the open throat (gola aperta).The achievement of this convergent, chiaroscuro vocal tractalignment is often complicated by “false kinesthesia.” 2

Bozeman reconciles the perception of the open throat withthe reality of the vocal tract. For example, he points out thatif we judge the open throat by pharyngeal space, the vowel/i/ is actually the most open-throated vowel and /a/ is oneof the least. Therefore, an inhalation that sounds like an /a/is rather narrow-throated and an inhalation that is relativelynoiseless is open-throated. Whispering in different wayscan be used to demonstrate convergent or divergentresonator postures.

KVP adds a new aspect of voice acoustics not covered in theauthor’s previous book. With permission, Bozeman offershis adaptation for the studio of Ian Howell’s work onpsycho-acoustics and absolute spectral tone color (ASTC).3

This concept challenges our perception of the sounds of thehuman voice. It also translates psycho-acoustics into adeeper understanding of the art of vowel modification andvowel perception in Western classical singing. The work ofboth Bozeman and Howell with ASTC is an advancement inour understanding of how vowel modification works andhow to most effectively teach it to students. As the authorrecommends, those wanting a deeper explanation of ASTCshould refer to Ian Howell’s writings and videos.4 In ad-dition, you can recreate Bozeman’s demonstrations using theMadde Voice Synthesizer and VoceVista Video. Once youhear these ideas for yourself, Bozeman’s concept of “undervowel” and “over vowel”—the tone color contributed bythe first and second formants, respectively–is easier tounderstand.

Bozeman offers an evidence-based explanation of placementsensations experienced by singers. Importantly, he offersinsights on how to interpret these often contradictory andcounter-intuitive experiences. He also summarizes commonstudent errors and how to guide singers through somato-sensory experiences to the best possible outcomes. Whilethis discussion is based on the most up-to-date research andunderstanding of the physical experience of our own voices,there are many questions on this topic that have not yet beenanswered. “Placement” phenomena are ubiquitous to the

2 Kenneth Bozeman, KinestheticVoice Pedagogy: Motivating AcousticEfficiency (Gahanna, Ohio: InsideView Press, 2017), 8.

3 Ian Howell, “Parsing the spectralenvelope: toward a general theoryof vocal tone color” (DMA diss.,New England Conservatory ofMusic, 2016).

4 “Ian Howell: Local SpectralCoherence,” YouTube video, apresentation at the Pan-AmericanVocology Association Conference onOctober 20, 2016, https://youtu.be/TUKYSmF7d10 (accessed July 13,2018).

20

Kenneth W.Bozeman


experience of singing and crucial to securing a vocaltechnique. In the past, researchers have often eschewedinvestigations into these sensations. This is probably becausethe elements comprising the percept of “placement” areexceptionally difficult to measure. The descriptions in KVPare, in my opinion, the most accurate and useful to date.

The author has organized the chapters with concise, clearlymarked subheadings under which each concept is intro-duced, explained, supported, and summarized. The sub-headings relate to the overall argument of each chapter.Bozeman closes many of the chapters with an effective,bulleted summary of the primary concepts. This is especiallytrue of chapter six, Comparison of Treble and Non-Treble VoiceTraining. There are helpful diagrams and illustrationsthroughout the text. “Accurately Mapping the Genioglossus”and “Epsilon and Capital C Images for Sensation of AcousticMigration Across Range” are particularly useful illustrationsthat I often refer to in my own teaching.5

The structure and brevity of KVP make this book easy tonavigate. I have read it straight through and have also usedthe detailed table of contents to selectively review individualsub-headings. Two appendices are also helpful. Appendix Ihas a list of acoustic designations and abbreviations. AppendixII is a glossary of terms used in the text. The language andterminology are carefully considered for both scientific accur-acy and historical usage. Having heard Bozeman lectureseveral times, I can recognize and enjoy the way the author’svoice comes through in his writing.

KVP offers many useful tools and insights even for teacherswho do not use acoustic pedagogy. However, I agree withScott McCoy’s statement in a recent NATS Chat. He saidthat a teacher’s understanding of voice acoustics is moreimportant than that of anatomy and physiology, “simplybecause there are more things that are under our direct,volitional control” in acoustics and resonance.6

In Practical Vocal Acoustics, Kenneth Bozeman cracked thecode of acoustic registration in Western classical singing. InKinesthetic Voice Pedagogy, he details a wide range of tools andexercises for teaching acoustic voice pedagogy. I have appliedthese concepts in my own singing and in my teaching. It hasprovided my students with tools that are simple and easy toapply in the practice room and on stage. I have found themall to be effective and accurate, congruent with the author’sexplanations. I believe that KVP is an important addition tothe literature on voice pedagogy. It combines voice sciencewith historical voice pedagogy in a celebration of the art of

5 Bozeman, Kinesthetic VoicePedagogy, 11, 48.

6 “NATS Chat with Dr. ScottMcCoy.” YouTube video, presentedon February 16, 2017, https://youtu.be/kxggpJ_qCyY(Accessed July 13, 2018).

21


teaching and the emotional motivation of beautiful singing.I highly recommend this book to all voice teachers.I have had the pleasure of knowing and working withKenneth Bozeman since 2015. We co-developed the studyguide for PVA, which is available at www.kenbozeman.com.At his 2015 summer workshop, I led the nightly reviewsessions and gave a lecture on applying acoustic pedagogyto belting. In 2018, I was a co-instructor with KennethBozeman and Ian Howell at the Acoustic PedagogyWorkshop at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Bass-baritone Chadley Ballantyne hasperformed with Opera Fort Collins, FrescoOpera Theatre, Union Avenue OperaTheatre, Light Opera Works, Opera for theYoung, Utah Festival Opera Company,Main Street Opera, American ChamberOpera, and Theo Ubique. Ballantyne is afrequent guest speaker on the topic ofapplying vocal acoustic pedagogy for bothclassical and CCM techniques. He haspresented at Chicago Chapter NATS, the2017 and 2018 Pan-American VocologyAssociation Symposiums, the 2017 WestCentral and Central Region NATS Con-ferences, and at the 55th NATS NationalConference in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was aco-instructor at the 2018 Acoustic VocalPedagogy Workshop at the New EnglandConservatory of Music and is a contributingauthor to The Evolving Singing Voice:Changes Across the Lifespan. Ballantyneis assistant professor of music, voice atStetson University. He has previouslyserved on the voice faculties of the Univer-sity of Northern Colorado, the TheatreConservatory of the Chicago College ofPerforming Arts at Roosevelt University,and North Park University. He holds abachelor of music degree from DrakeUniversity, and a master of music degreeand doctor of musical arts degree from theUniversity of Illinois.

22


Mary Alouette is a New York-based singer, songwriter, actress,and music producer. She has released four EPs of electronic jazzpop music and has headlined at venues including the RainbowRoom, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and Blues Alley.She has performed at Carnegie Hall, competed in the ApolloTheater’s tour, sung with the Washington Opera, and performedthe national anthem for major league baseball teams, includingthe Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals. Mary wroteand recorded a Cuban jazz EP while living in Havana, Cuba, andhas sung and played Gypsy jazz music internationally, mostmemorably with her Romani Gypsy friends’ caravans in France.Most recently, Mary was music director for a multi-lingual pro-duction of Shakespeare’s The Tempest at a Syrian refugee campin Greece. She was an artist-in-residence at the Brooklyn ArtsCouncil and Strathmore. Alouette is a graduate of the SchulichSchool of Music at McGill University, where she studied opera.

Mezzo-soprano Amalia Dobbins has performed extensively inopera, musical theater and oratorio. Favorite operatic and musi-cal theater roles include The Mother in Amahl and the NightVisitors, Maud Dunlop in The Music Man, Bloody Mary in SouthPacific, Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann, Hansel in Hansel andGretel, and Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls. Her oratorio appear-ances include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Verdi Requiem, Beetho-ven’s Mass in C Major, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Saint-Saëns’sRequiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Handel’s Messiah. Aftergraduating from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with amaster’s degree in vocal performance, Ms. Dobbins was chosenby distinguished contemporary classical music composers topremiere several new works in the US. She is a founding mem-ber of “The Liberty Belles,” an Andrews Sisters-style jazz triothat performs nationally. Ms. Dobbins studies voice with Metro-politan Opera soprano Martile Rowland. She has been a voicementor at The Colorado Springs Conservatory since 2014.

NYSTA New Members 2018

23


Playing the piano or singing, solo or with ensembles, nightclubentertainment or theater, Kathy Williams is an energetic performer.Early in her career she formed her own band and created a popularshow featuring the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, JudyGarland and Barbra Streisand. She returned to her music career in2005 with the release of her children's CD Crocodiles and Rainbows.She also became a songwriter with her second CD Happily EverAfter. Her latest recording, Embraceable You, features jazz standards.She loves to coach and encourage people of all ages in music.Kathy has created The Mindful Music Project to teach singing,songwriting, rhythm and movement to participants in communityand senior centers to encourage brain health. She is also tailoring aprogram to serve at-risk kids, as she believes music encourageslearning and develops lifelong skills for communication andperformance.

Michelle Mallardi’s Broadway credits include Belle in Disney’sBeauty and the Beast, Chess, Internal Combustion, and Astronauts.She has been a soloist at Radio City Music Hall in the ChristmasShow and with Liza Minelli. She has performed with national andEuropean tours of Les Misèrables, Frank Wildhorn’s Jekyll and Hyde,A Chorus Line, and West Side Story. Regionally, she has played EvitaPeron in Evita, Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, Christine in Phantom ofthe Opera, Louisa in The Fantasticks, and Gina in the East Coastpremiere of One Last Ride, now a feature film. She is on the facultyteaching voice at CW Post/Long Island University in the musicaltheater department. Check iTunes for her solo album Love In Time.

A lover of the performing arts from childhood, Johnna Yatesbegan her training in musical theater at the Orange CountyHigh School of the Arts. She went on to earn a bachelor of artsin drama at the University of CA, Irvine, where she receivedextensive training in acting, voice and dance. In 2011, she dis-covered her love for teaching and began offering private vocallessons and coaching to children, teens and adults. From 2012-2017, Johnna served as the program director of Christian YouthTheater NYC, where she taught a wide variety of musical thea-ter classes for ages 5--18 and refined her expertise in trainingchildren and teens in the performing arts. In addition to privatelessons, she also teaches youth theater arts classes with PaperMill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. She greatly enjoys working one-on-one with students of all ages, offering encouragement andchallenging them to grow, but has a particular passion to trainthe next generation.

24

Documents

VOICEPrints - Matthew Hoch