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November 6, 2018 to the Board of Directors of the Voice Foundation

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November 6, 2018 to the Board of Directors of the Voice Foundation November 6, 2018 To the Board of Directors of The Voice Foundation, This is a letter of interest in the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship, to be awarded in 2019. As I look through the bullet points to be included in this document, it’s clear to me that what I should really be submitting is simply a thank-you note, since attending the Annual Symposium has comprehensively re-shaped me as a vocal pedagogue since I began attending four years ago. The singers I teach (at the University of Missouri, and as of this year, at the Jacobs School of Music at IU-Bloomington) are music majors ranging from freshmen to young professionals, c. 18-26 years old. The freshmen arrive having had some introductory experience with vocal instruction, but are basically wide-open to the unknown. They leave after their first lesson knowing what vowel formants are and where they are located, understanding the contribution of harmonics to an expressive vocal color, and demonstrating a solid rudimentary understanding of resonance strategies (including divergence and off-resonance, aka inertance). I’ve been diligent in streamlining this information; I want them to gain fluency in these concepts before they even think twice. The rapidity with which these talented students assimilate a paradigm so squarely founded on acoustics and physiology is inspiring, and very exciting. As recently as three years ago, I felt obliged to defend the validity of these ideas, and my qualifications to present them as established fact. Now, that defensive stance (at least with these superlative students) is already obsolete. My primary areas of interest at the moment are threefold: The utility of off-resonance strategies as breath management, and via breath management, as the agent of musical phrasing. The proprioceptive sense of appoggio, a particular locus of physical contact in the body, correlated to the number of formants in play for a given vowel on a given pitch (“spoken,” at the VF, below fR2:fo; “balanced,” at the attachment of diaphragm to thorax, below fR1:fo; and “simple,” in which the air is managed exclusively by the singular resonance above fR1). I’ve introduced this guidance only this year, using hand-signals as prompts. The distinctions hold true regardless of voice type; these young students take this information completely in stride, as a corollary of timbral progressions relating to vowel formants. They make rapid improvements in stability and consistency of tone through a phrase, once they experience the benefits of correlating breath management to the harmonic spectrum at a given frequency. Predictive vs. non-predictive listening. This distinction was vividly presented at the 2016 Symposium; I would like to see comparative perceptions of octave-displaced, atonal vocal writing (Webern would be a great choice) between subjects firing in predictive vs. non-predictive areas, and also after subjects are conditioned to rely on either predictive or non-predictive brain centers. A possible area of study, pertaining primarily to the first interest listed above, involves a choral exercise used regularly by conductor Robert Shaw, in which a choral ensemble replaces the composed text with counts (“one- ee-and-a-two-ee-and-a-,” for instance). I observed a visiting choral scholar (and Shaw-apostle) advocating this exercise in master classes recently, admonishing the student conductors that “you can never work too much on rhythm.” I sang with Mr. Shaw in his summer tours through France, as a chorister as well as a soloist, and can certainly attest to the ubiquity of this exercise. Hearing it classified as rhythm-work did not ring true to me, however. I’m certain any of the voice professionals that benefit from the work of the Voice Foundation would also recognize that the skill being refined by this exercise is the ability as an individual, as a section member, and as a chorus member to sculpt the resonance profile of willfully random phonemes arrayed at regular increments along a vocal line—a profile they can then replicate when reverting to the nominally less-random phonemes of “agnus dei qui tollis peccata mundi.” Noteworthy as well is the variety of opinions on the desirability of polishing choral lines to that uniformly high sheen. A clear understanding of the resonance strategies being recruited could equip a singer (alone, or en masse) to exercise informed agency in choosing any desired quality of legato for a given passage, whether legatissimo via mean resonance, or opting for a more Fauvist juxtaposition of vocal color. I propose working with individual singers (though a choral ensemble would also be interesting) to generate spectra comparing a passage 1) prior to conditioning via the Shaw counting exercise, 2) the passage after a set number of passes through the exercise, 3) the passage on the original text after conditioning, and 4) after integrating specific instances of expressive color designed to disrupt the resonance profile established through the conditioning exercise. Because this particular exercise is well- known to choral conductors and singers as a rhythmic etude, assessing an unexpected variable (gradated resonance) would stimulate discussion. Honestly, it’s difficult to imagine any area of voice research that would not benefit my teaching (and my singing). Year after year, I’ve attended presentations on topics I expected to be vanishingly remote from my own work. Each time, it’s invariably these presentations that open the most unexpected, enlightening vistas. I do often find myself called to reconcile an understanding of scientific data with the expressive, artistic impulse. Work as described above is situated directly on that false divide, promoting the re-conception of harmonic spectra as nothing other than the essential expressive medium. My current NATS membership is with the Central Region, where I began 2018 on the faculty at the University of Missouri, where I’ve presented at two regional conferences on using instrumental models in voice pedagogy, and where I received the NATS pedagogy award which allowed me to attend the Voice Foundation Symposium in 2018. When I renew for 2019, it will be as a member of the Great Lakes chapter. I conclude this application with appreciation (as I began). Teaching has taken on so much more revelatory excitement for me since engaging with the Voice Foundation. Your guidance and support in the form of the Van Lawrence Fellowship would be quite an honor—but I already rely on your guidance and support, and will continue to do so. Thanks! Julia Bentley Associate Professor of Voice and Graduate Art Song Literature The Jacobs School of Music, IU-Bloomington Julia Bentley, Mezzo-Soprano 739 Forest Ave. Member: NATS, CMS, Voice Foundation River Forest, IL 60305 tel: +1 (708) 955-0382 www.juliabentley.net [email protected] TEACHING EXPERIENCE Associate Professor of Voice and Graduate Song Literature, Jacobs School of Music (IU-Bloomington) 2018- Assistant Teaching Professor of Voice and Voice Pedagogy, University of Missouri 2016-2018 Voice faculty, Concordia University 2012-2015 Lecturer in Song Literature, North Park University 2012-2014 Voice faculty, DePaul University School of Music 2009-2014 Voice faculty, Music Institute of Chicago 2008-2012 Master classes at NIU, SIU, DePaul, North Park, UNY/Buffalo, Augustana, UW/Madison 1998- Vocal Director, BRAVO Summer Arts Camp 2005 Voice Faculty, Northern Illinois University, Applied voice, Diction, Song Seminar 1998-2001, 2005-06 Private Studio, Vienna, Austria 1986-1989 Graduate Assistant, Applied voice, Indiana University at Bloomington 1985-86, 1989-91 PRESENTATIONS / PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Anatomy and Action: vocal anatomy and acoustics for composers (most recently at IU and UMKC) A Sound Investment: using instrumental models to illuminate vocal physiology (NATS Central Region Conference) Imaginative and Intellectual Oscillation in George Crumb’s Apparition (20th- and 21st- Century Song Cycle Conference at Michigan State University; co-authored paper presentation and live performance with Dr. Peter Lea) Southern Harmony: a song re-cycle (2018 NATS National Conference) University of Missouri Faculty Scholars (selective interdisciplinary cohort), 2017-2018 planning and leading a series of freshman convocations at MU; my mandate was to create community and “not be boring” organizing and mentoring collaborative teams of students from the English Department, Composition area, and Voice area towards the creation and performance of original art songs leading a first Composer Focus project, as those I led at DePaul, culminating in a weekend of vocal and instrumental works of Olivier Messiaen in concert research at the Missouri Historic Society into popular song published in 1917; these will be performed throughout the year as part of the School of Music’s centenary celebration performances in collaboration with the student New Music Ensemble, the faculty woodwind quintet, the faculty new music ensemble, shared recitals with Dr. Warnhoff (clarinet), with Dr. Lara (cello), with Dr. Howe (trombone) and with Professor Rosenfeld (violin), and my own faculty recital as part of the Messiaen weekend launching a Student NATS chapter, for which I served as faculty advisor STUDY AND AWARDS NATS Pedagogy Award, 2018 Grammy-nominated artist, 2015 Indiana University School of Music, BM ‘85, MM ‘89, AD ‘90 NATSAA Finalist (St. Louis) Lyric Opera Center for American Artists Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Regional Finalist Santa Fe Opera Apprentice ’91, ’93 (Outstanding Young
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