Topic GLOBAL
ARCHAMBEAULT Noël (Co. Edna Alejandra LONGORIA, Blake SMITH)
The Chicana Art Song Project is a Multi-Song Commission based on the texts of Chicana poets, such as Sandra Cisneros, Carmen, Tafolla, Pat Mora and many others, set to music by Edna Alejandra Longoria and edited by Blake Smith. When performed these songs are accompanied by the visual artwork of Chicana artist, Melissa Arangua-Johnson. Our Project was founded by Noël Archambeault and has been funded by the following grants and organizations: The University of Delaware General University Research Grant, the Arts and Culture grant from the City of San Antonio, and the Luminaria Artist Foundation grant.
Dr. Noël ARCHAMBEAULT, is a native of San Antonio, Texas and an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Delaware, where she currently teaches voice and voice pedagogy. Her performing career has been marked by tremendous vocal and dramatic versatility, and she is in great demand as an interpreter of twentieth century and contemporary music.
Edna Alejandra LONGORIA holds a MM in Composition from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University in Long Beach in 2015 and a BM in Composition from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2012. She is the recipient of many awards for compositions in various genres. Edna has written compositions for ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, Elixir Piano Trio, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet and several film festivals around the U.S.
Dr. Blake SMITH, tenor, is an award-winning singer, actor, stage director, and is an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Delaware. He has performed nearly forty principal operatic roles ranging from Mozart to Carlisle Floyd and has garnered special attention for his interpretations of Italian bel canto repertoire. He is a powerful advocate for art song and vocal chamber repertoire. His areas of specialization include songs of the English Musical Rensaissance (the works of Ralph Vaughan Williams, particularly), Benjamin Britten, and the works of American expatriate composers.
The Chicana Art Song Project, A Lecture Recital
The Chicana Art Song Project presents a lecture recital for the members of the International Congress of Voice Teachers. The Chicana Art Song Project is a multi-disciplinary endeavor aimed at giving voice to Chicana (female Mexican-American) artists in literature, music and the visual arts. The Chicano movement gained momentum in the 1960s and has yet to achieve its goals in most art forms. The movement supported advancement of civil rights and education reform among Mexican-American citizens in the United States. This project seeks to create a new genre of classical vocal art song of the Chicana tradition/culture and provide a medium for future artists to explore in multi-media performances. We look forward to transforming Chicana poetry into song with evocative Chicana media.
This new genre would allow a new generation of artists to feel connected to a music that speaks to their own experience of growing up Chicana and increase awareness in the classical community of our beautiful culture and traditions. Currently, the classical art song repertoire only offers tacitly related nationalistic songs, such as those from Argentina, Cuba, Spain, and others, but none that specifically refer to Chicana culture and tradition. Another beautiful outcome is that some of our literature heroines, such as Carmen Tafolla, Angela De Hoyos, and Sandra Cisneros would be given a musical voice and allow the classical music community to also experience the beauty of their words and understanding as to why these voices need to be lifted off the page and onto a new stage.
The benefits of such a project are numerous and are as follows: Musicians studying classical vocal music would be able to incorporate these songs into their formal training, which would inevitably lead to public performance. In doing so, these songs have the ability to reach audiences that may not know of the Chicana movement’s history and relevance. With the current political climate surrounding the topic of immigration in the United States, it is an ideal time for all citizens to have a greater understanding of the many benefits, truths, and sorrows that stem from immigration.
BESTER Christian
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “Impressive,” native South African baritone, Christian Bester made his professional debut as Schaunard in La Bohème for Pro Musica Theater. His European debut and engagements include Zaremba in Polin Blut for the Americke Jaro Festival in the Czech Republic, Papageno and Armed Man both for the Amalfi Coast Festival in Italy. Additional critical acclaimed roles include: Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva, Belcore, Enrico, Marcello, Germont, Aeneas, Bob (Old Maid and the Thief), Guglielmo, Escamillo, Prince Moritz Popolescu, Basil (Der Graf von Luxemburg) and Dr. Malatesta. Recent orchestra engagements include: Fort Worth Symphony, Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic, Manitowoc Symphony, Lone Star Wind Orchestra, Allen Philharmonic, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra League. Christian is a sought-after recitalist with regular performances throughout the United States, Australia, Wales, and South Africa. With more than fifteen years of studio voice teaching and voice classification experience, Dr. Bester has been instructing undergraduate and graduate voice majors, musical theater majors, voice concentration, education majors, instrumental majors, and talented high-school and adult learners.
Intercultural Dialogue: Giving a Voice to Indigenous People
In Ghoera, Afrika-verse vir kinders (Ghoera, African Verses for Children), poet Hennie Aucamp demonstrates an affiliation with and reflection of his surroundings, such as the tribal communities he experienced as a child. This group of African children’s poems, published by Protea Boekhuis in 2011, became the source of inspiration for native South African composer Niel van der Watt’s song cycle Die wind dreun soos ‘n ghoera, ‘n Siklus Boesman-mites. (The wind drones like a Ghoera, A Bushmen Myth Song Cycle) This study investigates and identifies significant compositional traits that contributed to van der Watt’s song cycle. To explore and understand the nature of such influences, the author considers the composer’s early childhood; religious world views; social, environmental; personal tonal language; and western musical elements. To ascertain possible indigenous Bushmen musical elements in van der Watt’s song cycle, the study traces the history of the Bushmen and their marginalization, followed by a brief survey of historical writings on Bushmen music, and an identification process utilizing musicologist Percival R. Kirby’s research on Bushmen music as a foundation. This study suggests that Hennie Aucamp’s poetry and Niel van der Watt’s song cycle represent a reconciling vehicle for cross-cultural understanding generating awareness and greater appreciation of the life, myths, oral traditions, and the music of the Bushmen.
Recital Repertoire:
Die Son [The sun]
Die Sterre [The stars
Die Maan [The moon]
Die Son en die Maan [The sun and the moon]
Die Melkweg [The milky way]
Die Wolke [The clouds]
Die Wind [The wind]
Wieglied [Cradle song]
BOOVER DANTZLER Alta
Alta Boover has appeared as a concert soloist with the New York City Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and with symphonies and opera companies across the country. She has appeared at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center as the narrator in Peter and the Wolf and in the premiere of a new edition of Victor Herbert’s Babes in Toyland. She has appeared as a concert and oratorio soloist with the Helena Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (MI and NY), the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony, the Dearborn Symphony, Oakland Symphony, North Mississippi Symphony, the Texarkana Regional Chorale, the Temple Symphony, and the Texas Symphony in performances including Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat, Weinachts Oratorio, and Handel’s Messiah.
Internationally, she toured Brazil as the alto soloist in a resurrection of the work of Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A frequent recitalist and performer of American operetta, she can be heard on many cast recordings on both the Albany Records and Operetta Archives Labels. Solo Albums include Life and Love, American Optimism/American Operetta and Of Time and Love: the music of Nicolas Bacri all on the Centaur Records label. She holds degrees from Skidmore College, The Eastman School of Music, and The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Boover is an Assistant Professor of Voice at Oakland University in Rochester, MI, where she has been on faculty since 2010.
Amereican Operetta
American Operetta is rich with beautiful songs in English for singers of all levels. Often overlooked in favor of its more well-known European counterparts, or its more modern Broadway progeny, the melodies of American Operetta are engaging in their own rights, and are nostalgic and accessible. These songs are gauzy and fragile memories which are foundational to American musical identity.
Today, American operetta, popular from the turn of the 20th century, conjures up lilting melodies on sentimental topics might seem cloying and naive when heard through our modern filter. And yet many can still hum the tunes to a Victor Herbert melody, or feel a tinge of patriotism when they hear a march by John Phillip Sousa, even if they can't necessarily call the composers by name. The shows are not often produced, but the melodies are the predecessors to the earliest days of the Broadway Musical.
Some of the greatest innovators in American Musical Theatre had strong roots in operetta. Oscar Hammerstein II collaborated with Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml, two of the most formidable writers of American operetta and went on to the most successful and prolific artistic collaborations of the 20th century with composer Richard Rogers. Over the course of his career, Hammerstein was often accused of being naive and sentimental, to which he answered "The things we're sentimental about are the fundamental things in life."
Victor Herbert's "Dream Melody", Romberg's "Desert Song", and Friml's "Rose Marie" are just a few of the songs that you'll hear in this program offered by Drs. Alta Boover and Drake Dantzler. Both have spent many seasons with the Ohio Light Opera, the only professional company in the United States entirely devoted to the preservation of operetta. Both can be heard on live cast recordings released by Albany Records and the Operetta Archives labels. Each can count more than 400 performances in over 50 separate productions of European and American operetta. Their album "American Optimism, American Operetta" is scheduled to release in the fall of 2022 on Centaur Records.
CAICEDO Patricia
Patricia Caicedo is a soprano and musicologist whose scholarship and performances center on Latin American art and Iberian art songs. She has released eleven albums with art songs in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Indigenous languages of Latin America. Caicedo has published numerous scholarly editions of scores and books, including The Latin American Art Song: Sounds of the Imagined Nations, the go-to history on its subject.
She is has performed all over the world in addition to founding and directing the Barcelona Festival of Song, which focuses on the performance and study of Latin American and Iberian art songs. Patricia regularly presents concerts, lectures, and masterclasses at US universities.
Patricia holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Medical Doctor´s degree from the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina. She is a Board Member of the International Music Council. www.patriciacaicedo.com
Master Class of Iberian and Latin American art song repertoire
To complement the lecture about Latin American and Iberian art song repertoire, Dr. Patricia Caicedo, a recognized expert in the field, proposes a master class of art songs in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. An opportunity to discover learn the performance practice of the repertoire and to discover songs and composers of high quality, to expand the musical horizons of classical singers, and contribute to the development of new audiences.
FONTAINE Jeanette (Co. TULYAGANOA)
Dr. Jeanette FONTAINE, mezzo-soprano, is an Assistant Professor of Voice and the Voice Area Coordinator at Mississippi State University. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Alabama. Active in scholarly pursuits, Dr. Fontaine most recently presented at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference in 2018. She has taught voice at Mississippi State University since 2012. Her students have placed in both the NATS and MMTA competitions. Dr. Fontaine is the music director and conductor for MSU Opera. She currently teaches Song Literature and Diction in English, German, Italian, and French. Dr. Fontaine is studying the Russian language and is an avid performer of Russian repertoire.
Dr. Roza TULYAGANOVA, DMA is a native of Uzbekistan. Since moving to the United States in 2000, she has traveled extensively, performing major and supporting opera roles in cities across the country. Dr. Tulyaganova completed her Master of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 2007 and holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University.
Dr. Tulyaganova has directed multiple operas and operatic scenes. Most recently, she was the Assistant Stage Director to Thaddeus Strassberger at Bard College Summerscape Festival in New York for their production of Demon by Anton Rubinstein.
Dr. Tulyaganova travels constantly giving master classes and her students are singing on such world-famous stages as the Marynskii and Bolshoi Theaters.
Dr. Tulyaganova is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice and the Director of Opera at Mississippi State University.
Easy Breezy Russian Diction
There is a vast and rich repertoire of Russian vocal music but it is often inaccessible to undergraduate students because of the complexities of Russian diction, particularly the Cyrillic alphabet. And while there are quite a few wonderful Russian diction books on the market today, most of these are geared toward graduate students and professional singers. These texts tend to be very detailed and lengthy featuring many IPA symbols that have no counterpart in Western languages.
The purpose of this lecture is to introduce voice teachers and students to an easier approach to Russian diction based on the book Easy Breezy Russian Diction by the presenters that is currently in progress. The lecture will begin with a brief overview of Russian vowels and consonants, which will include audience participation. “In the garden at night” (S. Rachmaninoff Op. 38, No. 1), “None but the lonely heart” (P. I. Tchaikovsky Op. 6, No. 6) “Tatiana and Olga’s Duet” (from Eugene Onegin by P. I. Tchaikovsky) and “As I Go to the River” (folk song arranged by V. Gorodovskaya) will all be performed and accompanied by slides presenting a new, innovative method of Russian pronunciation that features a mixture of transliteration and International Phonetic Alphabet.
For the presentation, we will require a pianist, piano, projector, and connecting cables or a laptop with USB port.
FRANCO Juliana
Praised for the beauty of her timbre, vocal technique, and musicality, Juliana Franco is also known for her versatility in different music styles from the Baroque, chamber, and opera repertoire to musicals and voice-over works. She is often seen and heard on stages in Brazil, United States, and Europe. Parallel to her work in the classical universe, she gives voice to characters from films and cartoons in Brazilian Portuguese. Ms. Franco is the voice of Anastasia in the Brazilian version of the film and other characters from TV and movies. Since 2015 she has been the soloist of the Série em Família with the Petrobrás Symphony Orchestra, in Brazil, in symphonic adaptations of children’s classics for soprano, baritone, and orchestra. Juliana Franco holds a D.M.A. in Pedagogy of Voice and an M. M. in Opera Performance from the University of Maryland in the United States. She dedicated her research to the topic of singing in Brazilian Portuguese for the non-native speaker associated with applied pedagogy. The title of his dissertation is Singing in Brazilian Portuguese: An Introductory Guide to IPA, Diction, and Repertoire. The main goal of her dissertation and research is to make Brazilian music and singing in Portuguese more accessible to those wishing to explore Brazil’s prolific repertoire. Ms. Franco has been researching the diction of sung BP for many years and gives recitals and lectures on the subject, promoting Brazil’s music and culture worldwide.
The Sounds of Brazilian Portuguese and the Main Pitfalls for Non-native Singers
Brazilian Portuguese is often regarded as a very melodic language and yet not considered a traditional language for singing. The lecture will introduce Brazilian Portuguese diction and IPA, the sounds of the language, and discuss the main pitfalls for the non-native speaker. The audience will be engaged in some demonstration of rhythms and Brazilian Portuguese sounds. The intent is to provide the necessary tools for the singer to interpret with authenticity and connect with audiences.
Although Brazil’s rich music tradition can be traced back to sixteenth-century colonial times, the repertoire is still largely unknown to audiences worldwide. This unfamiliarity perhaps is due to the challenge of singing in Portuguese. Audiences find themselves enchanted by the music but intimidated by the language, often approached as a challenge by native and non-native speakers. After presenting recitals of Brazilian songs outside of Brazil, we have heard comments by the public, like “I love this repertoire! Portuguese sounds a little bit like Spanish, but it is different, sounds like Italian and a little bit like French.” Some even say that Portuguese sounds a little bit like Russian. The influence of other languages in the genesis of Brazilian Portuguese and miscegenation brought to the Portuguese spoken in Brazil several sounds common to other languages. Brazilians add extra vowel sounds to the words by using the epenthetic [I] and [U] in consonant combinations or clusters and combinations of vowels /e/ and /o/ followed by consonants /m/ and /n/. The insertion vowels are called epenthesis. These extra sounds can be especially intriguing and confusing for the non-native speaker because they are not written in and change the pronunciation of words.
Singing is communicating, and words are an essential part of the song. I intend to provide helpful tools to make words easier to pronounce, improve interpretation by making the language sound beautiful, thus enabling singers to communicate better with their audiences.
HUSSAIN Meegan
Meegan Hussain is a PhD student in International Psychology (Trauma Concentration) at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Washington, D. C. She is also a Board-Certified Music Therapist, and she received her Master’s in Music Therapy from Immaculata University in 2016. Previously, she received a Master’s in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in 2006, studying under Professor Marvin Keenze. Along with teaching private and collegiate instruction of singing and piano, she has been performing in the United States and overseas in concerts, operas, and operettas. Meegan relishes performing in classical, jazz, and rock genres. She enjoyed a successful jazz and classical concert tour in Dakar, Senegal, where she headlined with Dr. María-Jose Parker, Spanish concert pianist, and local Senegalese musicians at the Dakar Music Festival on November 9th, 2019, and, with the aforementioned musicians, a sponsored concert by the US Embassy on November 14th, 2019. Previously, she has performed at the World Café Live in Philadelphia, PA, and for regional opera companies such as the Center Stage Opera Company, Delaware Ardensingers, and the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Chester County, PA. Her work experience includes both inpatient psychiatric hospital and outpatient music therapy, most recently at Einstein Health Network. Her current research entails how performing music relevant to culture can promote mental and physical health and wellness in individuals and communities. Meegan continues to see clients and students through her own private practice.
Music as Therapy: The Case for Cross-Cultural Understanding and Collaboration
Music has often been used for healing and therapeutic purposes across the world. In the Western context, these kinds of interventions have recently been formalized as part of a new field of inquiry and practice called music therapy. And yet the field still struggles to deal adequately with its implementation in non-Western contexts because of a generalized deficiency in cross-cultural understanding. In this paper I investigate the variety of ways the Esan people of Edo State, Nigeria have integrated their musical practices into their religious and ritualized interventions to promote health and wellness among their members (Aluede, 2012). I argue that while music is a general constant in the human condition, its particular iterations in different human societies are strongly wedded to local histories and cultural practices. In the case I mention above, for example, the Esan people conceptualize music as a talisman or amulet, or Edae, that confers therapeutic effects in its communal performances by members of the community. Classically trained singers know intimately how the beauty of a well-shaped phrase, articulated trill, or a perfect diminuendo can powerfully affect their audience’s mood, stunning them with skill or prowess. In much the same way, Nigerian practitioners of music as Edae can evoke, call up, and conjure feelings and emotions that have a direct impact on the physical and mental health of those involved. I claim that music therapists, in order to be effective in the Edo State context, would need to understand and appreciate the peculiar cultural valence that music as Edae constitutes, and to incorporate this concept into their therapeutic practices. And using this particular case of the Esan people as an example, this paper also calls for a more generalized commitment in fields like music and music therapy to improve cross-cultural understanding to foster new connections and create more effective therapeutic interventions around the world.
Keywords: music therapy, Edae, cross-cultural, mental wellness, Nigeria, non-Western contexts
References
Aluede, C. O. (2012). Music as Edae: The implications for music therapy in Nigeria. Unizik
Journal of Arts and Humanities, 13(1), 74-91. http://doi.org/10.4314/ujah.v13i1.5
MARIZ Joana
Singer, singing teacher, Professor of classical and popular singing and voice physiology (Faculdade Santa Marcelina), head of the Post-Graduate course in Vocal Pedagogy (Faculdade Santa Marcelina). PhD in performance and vocal pedagogy (Unesp/SP), voice specialist (PUC-SP), post-graduated in multidisciplinary work in voice (CEV-SP). Comet best poster award (2012), Movement Re-education Bertazzo Method certified and Somatic Voicework - The Lovetri Method certified teacher.
Brazilian CCM Music – Theory and practice
Bossa Nova, Tropicalia, samba, traditional styles, independent music, elaborated contemporary poetry and creative music. Brazilian popular song is one of the most prized varieties of CCM world music, and certainly one of our country's most strong and complex art forms. Its great diversity of musical manifestations have inspired both classical and CCM composers and performers around the globe since the XX Century to the present day, and brought to light a vast universe of vocal qualities and interpretive behaviors. This workshop will present its main underlying concepts in terms of vocal technique and interpretation, and participants will have the chance to experience some chosen pieces of this repertoire through listening and singing.
ROBINSON-MARTIN Trineice
A specialist in the pedagogy and performance for African American folk-based music styles, Dr. Trineice Robinson-Martin serves on faculty at Princeton University and Long Island University at Brooklyn ROC Nation School of Music, Sports, and Entertainment. In addition, Dr. Robinson-Martin is an internationally recognized clinician and performer, the creator of Soul Ingredients® Methodology and Soul Ingredients® Voice studio, serves on the national faculty of Gospel Music Workshop of America and LoVetri Institute of Somatic Voicework™, is the executive director of the African American Jazz Caucus, board director for the Jazz Education Network, member of the editorial board of Journal of Singing, and is a member of the distinguished American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
As an accomplished performer, teacher, and scholar, Dr. Robinson-Martin has traveled and taught students worldwide and lectures nationally and internationally on various Soul Ingredients® and Black American music topics and offers teacher training and artist development courses online and in person. Dr. Robinson-Martin has authored and produced several published works, both peer-reviewed and self-published, aiming to remedy the lack of Black music traditions represented in voice pedagogy
Maintaining an active performance schedule, Dr. Robinson has recorded with Cyrus Chestnut, Nnenna Freelon, Kenny Davis, and Vince Ector, and performed with concert choirs and chorales, large and small jazz ensembles, Latin music ensembles, and more. She was part of the “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” tour along with Peabo Bryson, Leela James, and James Jamerson Jr.
Her critically acclaimed debut All or Nothing, co-produced with jazz saxophonist Don Braden, features several internationally acclaimed musicians, including Don Braden, Cyrus Chestnut, Kenny Davis, and Vince Ector. All or Nothing features a mix of traditional and contemporary jazz standards, jazz-infused R&B standards, and original songs. For more information, visit www.drtrineice.com
Black American Music Voice Pedagogy: What Voice Teachers Should Know
Black American music is at the root of all American popular and folk music styles and remains influential in popular music styles around the world. However, they are very few available resources that discuss Black American music styles, performance practices and voice pedagogy specifically for voice teachers. Folk-based music styles within Black American music genres represent musical extensions of black cultural expressions and the Black experience in America. The tones used, and the approach to singing, are direct extensions of emotional, animated speech; colloquial expressions; and regional dialects. To really understand a singer’s use and approach to the various sound and style characteristics found in Black American folk-based music styles, one must understand the culture the music represents, and the function music has a cultural expression and cultural pedagogic principles related to its study.
This lecture will provide an overview of pedagogic parameters and cultural understanding related to teaching Black American vocal music styles. Lecture topics will include paraments for:
- Developing the voice,
- Style training considerations,
- Cultural understanding and Sensitivities
- Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Cone, J.H. The Spirituals and the Blues: An interpretation 1992
Jones, L. Blues People: Negro Music in White America, 1999
Benson, E; Robinson-Martin, T; Naismith, M. “Practicing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the Voice Studio.” Voice and Speech Review (2021)
Robinson-Martin, T. “Gospel Music.” African American Music: History and Heritage Ed. Tolson, J. Gateway Publications (2021)
Robinson-Martin. T. So You Want to Sing Gospel: a Guide for Professionals. Roman and Littlefield, 2017. Print.
Robinson-Martin, T. “Take my hand: Teaching the gospel singer in the applied voice studio,” Teaching Singing in the 21st Century. Ed. Harrison, S. D. and J. O’Bryan. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. 335-350. Print.
SIMÕES SILVA Luciano
Luciano Silva is a tenured professor of music (voice and choral music) with the Latin-American Integration University in Brazil since 2014. He has been singing professionally since 1988, and teaching voice for more than 25 years, having taught at the University of Campinas, Michigan State University (MSU), Alma College and in his private studio. He holds a doctorate of musical arts from MSU in voice performance, as well as two masters, one in music (choral conducting) and another one in arts (musicology), from the same university. He has completed post-doctoral researches at the University of Coimbra, investigating the Fado voice, and the São Paulo State University, where he investigated belt technique. Dr. Silva has a firm knowledge of voice science, having completed courses such as “Integrated Training in Voice” (under Dr. Mara Behlau), “The Science of the Singing Voice” (under Dr. Johan Sundberg) and “ProVox” (under Dr. Filipa Lã). His former voice teachers include Patricia Green, Richard Fracker, and Martha Herr.
Dr. Silva has been presenting research in many important conferences in voice, such as PAVA 2021, PEVoC 2019, EVTA Austria 2019 and ICVT 2017, as well as masterclasses and lectures in universities such as the University of Coimbra (2020), Mozarteum University in Salzburg (2019, 2018) and the University of Bremen (2017).
Dr. Silva is the official translator to Brazilian Portuguese of The Structure of Singing, the seminal work by the great Richard Miller, published in 2019. He specializes in cross-training and hybrid singing, teaching genres as diverse as musical theater, jazz, and MPB. Moreover, Dr. Silva has extensive choral and vocal ensemble experience, which started 33 years ago with the vocal group Beijo. He also sang for six years with the São Paulo Symphony Chorus, and directed choirs in Brazil, USA and Canada.
Carol Ramalho is a Brazilian-Italian singer and singing teacher currently based in Italy and living as a digital nomad. In Brazil she worked for more than 10 years as a singer in cover bands, wedding ceremony receptions and as a producer in musical projects. She graduated in music - voice at UNILA in 2021.
Beyond Bossa Nova: The Hybrid Singer in South-American Vocal Styles
Nowadays, cross training is more than a necessity: it is a reality in vocal pedagogy. It is important to consider that often in real life, the professional singer needs to adopt an attitude that is in itself hybrid, mostly because of the music business. We could even call this professional as the “ceremony and party singer,” who sings in the wedding ceremony, then at the dinner and finally goes to the wedding party to perform, finishing the night performing various styles and genres. For the popular singer dealing with Latin-American music, there are dozens of vocal styles to consider, from the most famous bossa nova and tango to traditional guarania and chacarera to pop and rock.
The goal of this workshop is to bring a little bit of my practice as a voice builder of hybrid singers at the university level, teaching how to adjust timbre, color and interpretation in a way that is technically coherent, creates a vibrant learning environment, and takes off the pressure of the student as it relates to her “specialization” in a specific style, using the variety of South-American vocal genres as a framework.
In the first part, there will be a mini-lecture, showing a little bit of this diversity, that involves many cultures, languages (Portuguese, Spanish, Guarani etc) and genres.
In the second part, we intend to exemplify, singing the different adjustments on five major styles in the continent. The third and last part will follow with the participation of the audience in performing with the adjustments of these styles. The text in these exercises will be composed of very simple words and/or nonsensical sounds that relate to Portuguese or Spanish, in order to make it easier for non-speakers, since the goal here is for the participants to experience these styles in a practical manner, but not to be concerned with diction.
The work of Rosenberg and LeBorgne, Helding, Canclini, Andrade and Epstein help form the basis of a cross-training that can form singers with a real grasp on flexibility, preparing the performer to approach the variety of CCM styles from Colombia to Argentina.