University Programs
Why Are These Programs Necessary A History and Background
Research undertaken by Jeannette LoVetri and Edrie Means Weekly of Shenandoah Conservatory, which was published in the noted scientific Journal of Voice (Vol 12, No 2, 2003), has shown that 34% of university teachers of non-classical music, particularly music theater, have neither training nor professional experience in music theater yet are still teaching it. (This music, in all styles, is now called generically, Contemporary Commercial Music or CCM). Music theater now utilizes all styles including, rock, pop, country, jazz, gospel and folk, yet until recently there have been no formal university level programs in any of these styles with the exception of jazz. Young singers who wish to sing in these styles are forced to choose classical vocal training, acting training, or no vocal training at all, if they wish to attend college. There has been a very large gap between college training and real-world practicalities for a singer of CCM. Since 2003, the Shenandoah Conservatory and Jeannette LoVetri have offered a summer intensive of Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy based upon Somatic Voicework™. For the brochure www.su.edu/www/tvpc/index.cfm
Our Present situation
American musical theater was spawned by British music hall reviews, but also evolved from American vaudeville and many other sources. Pop music did not begin in Europe in the upper echelons of society, as did classical music. Jazz, rock, gospel, and
Because CCM has overtaken the world as the predominant form of music, particularly in the last 50 years it has had a profound influence over our culture, and perhaps the cultures of other nations. Despite this, no higher-level training program had ever been devised to address the very different vocal production needs of each of these CCM styles. Opera training has been regarded as a kind of "magic" one size fits all vocal training, which it most definitely is not. Everyone knows that the singers who are in opera's La Boheme can't sing the same sounds as a vocalist in Broadway's Rent. There are physical reasons why that is true, not just ones of talent or personal style.
What We Are Changing
Jeannette LoVetri has developed the first programs of Music Theater Vocal Pedagogy (how to teach singing) based upon voice science and medicine and to be put into university training courses for teachers. The training programs are organized to give voice teachers a sequenced, multi-layered approach to vocal production including many topics not addressed by classical singing. These programs have been met with resounding acclaim, as they are meeting a very clear need.
Available To Your University, School or Organization
Somatic Voicework™ may be incorporated into school curriculum or programs as a graduate or doctoral level course. Somatic Voicework Training can be presented as a summer intensive, an on-going program or in other formats designed to meet specific needs.
Somatic Voicework™ The Lovetri Method offers universities, colleges and music schools a unique opportunity to present a very current well-organized, documented, and thoroughly successful approach to teaching contemporary commercial music, which is aimed towards the faculty, who may have little or no training in CCM, as well as to students and to the general musical public.
Somatic Voiceworktm for CCM will strengthen existing programs, complement traditional classical training without threatening it, and support teachers working with CCM music theater to use healthy principles in their approach. To see what participants have said about Somatic Voicework The LoVetri Method, please look at the brochure www.su.edu/www/tvpc/index.cfm
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