Observations from the 2023/24 MT Audition Season
I am always seeing students and voice teachers asking questions about prescreening and musical theatre auditions online, so I thought I’d share some observations about this year’s auditions. This is … Continue reading
The Metropolitan Opera Guild May Be Dead, but the Arts Are Not
The recent closure of the Metropolitan Opera Guild triggered comments on social media lamenting the death of the arts. This is without a doubt a sad development for opera in … Continue reading
The history behind “High Art” bias in academia
TW: Contains historical quotes with racist content The vast majority of academic music programs in the United States are predominantly if not fully steeped in classical music with few or … Continue reading
Pedagogical Musings: Music Preference & Social and Cultural Identity
As we all explore ways to be more diverse and inclusive, I want to share a few thoughts. There is a 2002 study by Angela Turton and Colin Durrant called … Continue reading
Love the Music? Love the People: Moving Beyond Style to the Heart and Soul of Genre
“Change starts in our classrooms and our studios…showing our young people, and especially BIPOC, that all musics deserve to be studied and taught and sung…that we respect that they know … Continue reading
Ten Ideas for Online Teaching
Covid-19 is here and voice teachers have no choice but to adapt and move online for a while. A simple look at social media shows that teachers who are not … Continue reading
Recalibrating for Popular Music Singing
An excellent article by Julie Martin Dean. Great advice for singers and teachers of popular music styles.
Mix it up Monday: “ That’s not how you_____________”
How many times has one of your students said something along the lines of: Well the music director said that pop/rock never has vibrato The casting team told me my … Continue reading
Mix it up Monday: “Common Resonance Images and their Pitfalls”
There have been so many great books published in the last ten years, it is hard to keep up with them all. “What Every Singer Needs to Know About the … Continue reading
Facebook Live with Allen Henderson
For the last year, I have been part of VoiceLessons.com‘s weekly Facebook Live broadcasts. This week we are hosting Dr. Allen Henderson, Executive Director of the National Association of Teachers … Continue reading