Jeannette LoVetri, Director

University Training Programs for Teachers

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™. Until our 2012 brochure is ready, please view our 2011 brochure. For further questions please contact: Kathryn Green at kgreen@su.edu.
For more information please visit our CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute page and especially the website for the CCM Institute for the latest news.

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 R & B have their roots in the Afro-Caribbean cultures of the common people. Country, folk and pop music are American art forms, developed in this country by average people, many of whom had no formal musical training.

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 view our 2011 brochure. For further questions please contact: Kathyn Green at kgreen@su.edu.
For more information please visit our CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute page and especially the website for the CCM Institute for the latest news.

CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah University

The Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute Our eleventh year featuring Somatic Voicework™, the LoVetri Method, runs July 13-22, 2013 for levels I, II and III. It continues to be the first and only vocal pedagogy course offering graduate and doctoral credit for courses on CCM. It also offers a number of post certification courses for those who are certified as Level III graduates. Please view our new 2013 brochure. For more information please visit CCM Institute For further questions please contact: Kathryn Green at kgreen@su.edu.

Other Venues for Somatic Voicework™ Level I

Somatic Voicework™ Level I will also be offered January 18-20, 2013, at UMass Dartmouth. For details and registration information please check out our 2013 Umass brochure For more information please contact Marcelle Gauvin

New in New York City!!! Somatic Voicework™ Level I will now be offered May 17-19, 2013 at the City College of New York. For details and registration information, visit our 2013 brochure. For more information please contact Suzanne Pittson.

Somatic Voicework™ Level I will be offered for the second year, June 14-16, 2013, at the University of University of Central Oklahoma at Edmond, OK. More Details TBA. Please view out 2013 brochure for registration forms. For more information, please contact Barbara Streets at UCO.

Somatic Voicework™ Level I will offered again for the third year October 25-27, 2013, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Until our 2013 brochure, is ready please view our 2012 brochure.. For more information, please contact Marci Rosenberg

Workshops/Masterclasses

Jeanie LoVetri will be conducting a series of masterclasses and workshops, February 22-24, 2013 at Baldwin Wallace University, Berea Ohio.