| Foreign Language Sequence |
Undergraduate Vocal Pedagogy is a year-long course in which students acquire basic knowledge of the vocal mechanism and tone production as well as learn diagnostic skills and strategies for healthy vocal development. Included are classes on ear physiology and function, acoustics, learning modes, and medical issues impacting the voice user. In supervised teaching, students also improve ancillary studio skills, such as sight-reading, piano proficiency,and conducting.
As seniors, vocal performance majors take Opera Workshop. This course is designed to build on the foundation of Intro to Lyric Theatre and maximize the students’ acting technique. The fall semester is focused exclusively on technique building. In-depth study of body awareness, performance energy, active choices, theatrical context, and elements of style are applied in work on arias, recitative, and spoken dialogue. The spring semester continues with further application of technique in scene work from operas. The scenes receive musical and dramatic coaching and then are staged and “workshopped” before being presented at the end of the semester.
The junior-level course for voice majors is Intro to Lyric Theatre. This is an overview course on performing in opera and musical theatre. Basic acting technique – including body awareness, stage deportment, principles of naturalism, spoken dialogue, and improvisation – is presented through exercises and interactive lecture. Scenes from appropriate opera and musical theatre are assigned and prepared for a public program in the spring semester.
Steven Daigle on "Opera"
The foreign language curriculum for undergraduate voice majors is unique among undergraduate course offerings. The Eastman School department of Voice and Opera offers a carefully crafted sequence of language study for the undergraduate voice major, beginning in the freshman year with Italian language followed by Italian diction. The sophomore class continues this sequence with German language and diction followed by French language and diction in the junior year. Seniors will study English diction to round out the language study. This sequence, in effect, provides the voice major with an unofficial “foreign language minor”. This part of the undergraduate curriculum provides a critical foundation of linguistic expertise as the young singer begins to build his/her artistic personality.
Robert Swenen on "Foreign Language"
Graduate Vocal Pedagogy is a year-long course featuring a full semester of guided teaching experience. In the first semester, Performance Pedagogy explores the vocal processes: cognition, respiration, phonation, articulation, resonance, coordination and communication - balancing both the scientific and artistic factors that create good singing. Students also learn about the origins of Bel Canto and categorizing voices, the special concerns in teaching the male voice, and challenges as a singer sings from adolescence through maturity. Remedies for performance anxiety are presented. Great singers of the past are studied by video. Students learn to analyze singers in performance and create effective lesson plans. In Advanced Vocal Pedagogy, students have two voice students each and keep a journal of their work. Class time is devoted to establishing technical priorities, principles of healthy vocalization, appropriate repertoire and discussions of in-class teaching demonstrations.
A course for graduate students in audition techniques. Students learn how to present themselves effectively in auditions, how to create professional audition materials, and what to expect as they enter the market. Students work on three arias and a monologue during the course. Students research the arias and assemble a contextual profile of the piece. The arias are coached and staged as they would be in the context of the opera, and then from that core understanding of the piece, an appropriate audition format is distilled. Monologues are presented to help students find appropriate spoken material and refine that part of their audition package. The semester culminates in an actual audition for a panel of Eastman and outside adjudicators.
Performance Techniques for the Singing Actor
A graduate-level course in acting. Offered in the fall semester, the course is focused on building acting technique. In-depth study of body awareness, performance energy, active choices, theatrical context, and elements of style are applied in work on arias, recitative, and spoken dialogue.