Students, Faculty, Alumni Present Record Number of Presentations and Workshops at Voice Foundation’s Annual Symposium

Shenandoah Conservatory students, alumni and faculty presented a record number of podium presentations and pedagogical workshops at the Voice Foundation’s 52nd annual symposium, Care of the Professional Voice. This is the premier conference for voice science and pedagogy, and research from Shenandoah University was central to the conference.

Studies were presented by Adia Fox ’23 (Master of Music in Pedagogy – Contemporary Commercial Music), Shaofeng Zheng ’23 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance – Voice), Katie Burnham ’23 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance – Voice), Diana Restrepo ’23 (Master of Music in Pedagogy – Contemporary Commercial Music), Marita Stryker ’23 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Pedagogy – Voice), Shanshan Zhang ’24 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Pedagogy – Voice), Carolyn Sebron ’23 (Doctor of Musical Arts in Pedagogy – Voice), Kevin Rose ’24 (Master of Music in Pedagogy – Contemporary Commercial Music) and Warren Freeman ’14 (Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy – Contemporary Commercial Music).

Shenandoah University faculty presenters included Associate Professor of Virtual & Augmented Reality Mohammad Obeid, Ph.D.; Associate Professor of Voice and Musical Theatre, Coordinator of Musical Theatre Voice and Artistic Director of the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute Matt Edwards ’15, D.M.A.; Visiting Adjunct Professor of Voice Science Christian T. Herbst, Ph.D.; Director of the Janette Ogg Voice Research Center and Associate Professor of Voice (Baritone) and Voice Pedagogy David Meyer, D.M.; and Health Professions Associate Professor and Director Katrina Miller, Ed.D.

Titles of presentations included:

1. “The Lombard Effect and the Result of Changing CCM Background Accompaniment Volume”
2. “Elite Singers’ Speech and Singing Voice Type – A Correlational Study”
3. “An acoustic analysis of Leco Llanero”
4. “The Effect of Humming Tasks on Psychophysiological Markers of Anxiety Within the Applied Voice Lesson”
5. “Quantifying talk-time in singing instruction: an automated method”
6. “A Lifelong Joy: Elderly African Americans, Singing and Cessation”
7. “Belting as High as They Can: The Evolution of Female Musical Theatre ‘Money Notes’”
8. “Anatomically-Correct Simulation for Voice Science and Pedagogy: a Virtual Reality Experiment”
9. “Acoustical Theory of Vowel Modification Strategies in Belting”
10. “Aerodynamic Measures in a Synthetic Silicone Vocal Fold Model Coupled with a 3D-Printed Vocal Tract”

The majority of these investigations were student-faculty interdisciplinary collaborations.