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Name: Justin Petersen
Hometown: Peculiar, MO Voice type: The Fachless Wonder Performance Genre(s): Classical and Musical Theater Number of Years Teaching: 22 years Singing Genre(s) Taught: Classical, Musical Theater, Jazz, Pop, and Rock Primary Age of Students: I teach all age ranges from 12-55 Current Teaching Employment: I have a private practice in Watertown and Allston, and I also work as the Lead Song Coach for My College Audition, preparing high school students for the competitive music theater college audition experience. What brought you to singing and then to teaching? I started singing at 2, and began singing professionally as a young singer at 10 years old in various opry houses throughout the state of Missouri where I grew up. I was active in choir in my high school and fell in love with opera at 16 after watching the films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. I decided to pursue a music education at Simpson College where I performed in operas and then went on to sing with the Des Moines Metro Opera. I began teaching after much contemplation. When I was in graduate school I taught the Opera Workshop and Voice, and realized that I really loved teaching. I knew nothing about the voice (outside my own vocal studies and knew that the education would not be sufficient, so I began to read every book on singing that I could find, and accumulated a rather large library of texts on singing, which helped to formulate my pedagogical thinking, in addition to the work of teachers and colleagues that influenced my journey as well. What was your biggest “ah-hah” moment in teaching voice? I’ve had SO many, and I continue to have MORE of these moments the longer I teach. Mainly the ‘a-ha’ is a reminder that I need to simplify in lessons. Too much knowledge can drive a man mad, and the students are left none the better after an in-depth explanation or ‘sermon’ as I like to call them. I have had so many of these moments in relationship to all the aspects of singing: breath, singing, resonance, performance, interpretation, and expression. It enlivens the teaching process for sure. I know enough to know how a voice will respond, but I always stay open to what actually occurs! What has been your biggest obstacle in teaching and how have you overcome/are you overcoming it? I’d have to say the biggest obstacle for me is the inherent loneliness of teaching. Sitting at a piano all day long with students and maintaining a professional demeanor, it can get quite lonely because I don’t have ‘water cooler’ moments with colleagues that office workers or other types of fields have. I’m very social and love people, and I am trying to make more friends but it has been difficult to do. Can you share your funniest teaching moment? Hard for me to seize on one moment because I try to make all my lessons a fun and joyful experience! What skill(s) do you think are most important when it comes to being a quality voice teacher? So many - too many in fact. The most valuable tool is the diagnostic ear and then knowing HOW to remedy the issue. It is a marriage between understanding function and knowing how to influence that function. Couple that with a kind, empathetic, PATIENT, and listening temperament and you have what I would consider a good start to being a quality teacher. The educational experience is all about the student, not the teacher or their ego or own insecurities. What do you love and/or dislike most about teaching singing? I love the discovery of voice lessons. I love that no two lessons are the same and the ability to respond in the moment to every student’s needs, no matter how they are feeling. I love enabling a person to come into a greater relationship and intimacy with their own body through sound. I also love lightbulb moments when after a long period of ‘tending to the garden,’ the flowers finally begin to blossom in the voice. The labor of patience and work involved in waiting...waiting...waiting...as the voice becomes freer and more easy in movement, flexibility, and dynamic contrast. And to the things I dislike? Sometimes the fact that much of the profession seems to be locked in a state of egoic argumentation over the smallest of nits, and the because much of our communication is done virtually, we don’t foster true authentic relationships with our colleagues built upon mutual trust and collegiality. We rush to judgement and scorn or deride others based on incomplete information. I think the voice teaching profession by and large needs to have a serious conversation with itself about mental health and how that manifests in our interactions and in our teaching. Most Importantly: Coffee or Tea? In the mornings, coffee; at night, tea.
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Name: Clare McLeod
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia/North Hampton, NH Number of Years Teaching: 16 Primary Age of Students: 18-24 Current Teaching Employment: Associate Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music What brought you to singing and then to teaching? There are lots of ways to tell this story – in fact, lots of stories to tell. I had a wonderful second grade teacher and that gave me a sense of the difference that a good teacher can make to a students’ life. I have held a great respect for teachers since then. Musically, at 11, I heard my older brother singing with the Australian Opera Children’s Chorus, at a choir camp and I was entranced by hearing people sing together. I tugged at my mother’s sleeve, auditioned for Richard Gill (Australia’s Leonard Bernstein) and spent my teenage years performing various children’s parts in Der Rosenkavalier, Turandot, Hansel and Gretel, Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci. Around 14, my father came home with the box set of Ella Fitzgerald Songbooks, and I heard the Gershwin songs he’d played me in the car when I was very small. It rekindled an interest in jazz, but it seemed to be either/or – the classical teachers I had access to did not appreciate my interest in jazz, nor did the jazz teacher I found appreciate my background with classical music. I was steeped in “if you’ve learnt to sing classical, you can sing anything” – which I mindlessly accepted. It didn’t seem to be the case, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I went to the Sydney Conservatorium for a year, but didn’t stick around. My interest in jazz took me to Berklee, which was a fertile ground for exploration, but also exposed me to Songwriting and broadened what I listened to. I remember being shocked when I heard Patty Griffin sing “Moses” –thinking what IS this? Being unsatisfied, I kept looking for answers: how does the voice work – and still love the search for better answers. It’s blossomed into a search for better questions – and sharing this with students keeps me vigilant. Maximizing how helpful I can be is my goal - and I love the challenge. In fact, singing and teaching are both so incredibly complex and rich in their intellectual rewards, physical demands, rigor and discipline. Doing it well creates so many worthy goals. Music as the playground where I can explore the intersection of so many areas, literature, psychology, physics, biology, acoustics, performance skill and more. It’s so stimulating – and humbling. I can’t know it all, but striving to go as deep as much as I can keeps me going. Humans really are amazing. I love the opportunities created by learning to do this well. What has been your biggest obstacle in teaching and how have you overcome/are you overcoming it? Narrow thinking, my own tacit assumptions, working within the limitations of a system and a precariously built industry. What was your biggest “ah-hah” moment in teaching voice? So many! Fairly recently, I realized how much of my job was helping people figure out how to practice. I hadn’t seen it in those terms so clearly, and it was so shockingly obvious. I think my background in classical music and my personality, led me to assume that people knew how to work independently towards their goals. If they weren’t practicing (effectively), it was because they were choosing not to. I do think, in undergrads, that there is a difference in their expectations entering college depending on their school experience with lessons – if they’re entering a classical undergrad program, they know that the Met won’t be calling them tomorrow – that there will be several years of training, probably grad school and auditioning for young artists programs. For a contemporary singer, those assumptions (implicit or explicit), don’t exist: the understanding of training, the benefits of lessons and practice, are something that needs to be cultivated, particularly as they are more likely to be a little more freaked out that the phone hasn’t rung yet. The clock is different when the classical trajectory is gathering strength with things starting to happen around 35 years old, as opposed to thinking a pop career will not happen if you haven’t broken through by 35. (I realize I’ve made generalizations. Of course there are exceptions, and 35 isn’t a rule). I’m not arguing for continuing this into the future, but looking at the past, this seems to be a pattern. Changing the system is an interesting discussion). I’ve found that when my new students walk in the door, surfacing some of these issues if they are tacit assumptions, or explicit concerns, helps to get in the right mindset. It worries me to see teachers complain about what they see as student deficits, and who scolding students for what they don’t know. It doesn’t seem to show much consideration of the causes that may contribute to the situation nor does it equip students with tools to change. Nobody is happy in that scenario. We talk about students being “College ready”. Are we, (in academia) “Student ready”? How many of our expectations are set up for students that do not exist anymore? Can you share your funniest teaching moment? Not sure about funniest but most recent: Yesterday, one of my pedagogy students taught a short series of exercises to a small group and chose to include some Lip Trills. In his written statement turned in prior to giving the lesson, explaining his choice and the purpose of the exercise, he labelled the exercise Lip Thrills. We all laughed! What skill(s) do you think are most important when it comes to being a quality voice teacher? Listening. The ability to listen deeply to your students, your colleagues, to yourself, to the sound, to what is being said, and what is not being said, to the body…Continually trying to get to all the layers of communication and remain open to what’s there, instead of falling prey to confirming the biases that time and experience have brought. Most Importantly: Coffee or Tea? TEA |
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