Blair School of Music faculty encouraged first-year voice majors not to participate in any extracurricular performing arts groups or productions that require a semester or year-long commitment of voice-use during their first year of school. They cited the extensive vocal demand and time commitment these groups can have as reasons the students should choose not to participate.
Initially, some performing arts organizations said they were under the impression that this advisement was absolute. Later, Tucker Biddlecombe, Blair professor and associate dean for undergraduate education, clarified that this is not an absolute rule but an advisement from faculty that has been under discussion for several years.
“That was the initial message sent from the department faculty. However, it later became clear that freshmen voice majors were, in fact, allowed to audition for a cappella groups if they chose to do so,” Kylar Larson, junior and Melodores president, said. “While it was strongly advised against by the Blair faculty, they were nonetheless permitted.”
According to Biddlecombe, the first year of vocal study is essential to developing vocal techniques, practicing habits and anatomical understanding. In addition, the daily rigors of singing at a collegiate level are demanding on the voice and are typically a big adjustment from high school. Biddlecombe said that in classical voice training, singers sing without a microphone to support their sound. This, along with the many daily hours of ensemble commitments, voice lessons, coaching, rehearsals for productions and personal practice time, puts a high demand on the voice.
“Classical singers are vocal athletes, and like their peers on campus here to play a sport, they work to set a foundation of excellence for effective practice habits, stress management and care of their instruments, which they cannot separate from their body,” Biddlecombe said.
Biddlecombe said that in the past, students expressed concern over slowed or halted vocal progress and specifically cited that this was due to the vocal demands and time commitments of extracurricular performing groups. He added that if first-year students prioritize building strong vocal technique first, they will be able to participate in these groups in future years without sacrificing vocal health and growth. First-year voice major Eleftherios Nikolaidis expressed agreement with this sentiment.
“It can be easy to see how restrictive it is, but honestly, when you take into account that our bodies and minds are literally our instruments, the preventative measures our professors are trying to take are really so we don’t overexert ourselves and so we can get the most out of our fundamental first year of training,” Nikolaidis said. “At the end of the day, the doors to these orgs aren’t closed. They’re just postponed until next year.”
Sophomore Cade Dycus, Spectrum A Cappella treasurer, said Spectrum typically takes students of all majors, so they were not directly affected. He added that this recommendation could affect the A Cappella selection process across all groups in the future.
“Typically, vocal majors join the Melodores or Harmonic Notion. This rule prevented those groups from recruiting from the pool they normally choose from, which made the selection process a lot harder this year for all teams, as we were all choosing from the same students for the most part,” Dycus said. “However, this year was very musically talented, so there were plenty of freshmen to choose from. I just worry about this affecting future years in maybe more sparsely talented classes.”
