Resources

DC Area Performances

  • DC Live Music lists a wide variety of musical events for the area, and a big reference section with categories such as venues, karaokes, bands, musicians, etc.
  • Vocal Arts DC sponsors classical singers in recital.
  • Washington Performing Arts Society produces concerts by leading classical artists.
  • Cantate Chamber Singers presents unusual programs of choral music, including frequent premieres and unique collaborations.
  • Urban Arias is a local professional opera-producing organization that focuses on short, modern works presented in English in smaller spaces.

Musical Theatre

  • Broadwayworld.com’s student section, including listings of educational institutions that offer degrees in musical theatre and related fields.
  • Broadway Theatre Project Training program for young musical theatre performers age 16 and up. There have been some administrative changes since 2011, so research carefully.
  • The Performing Arts Project Founded in 2011, is a summer program for young musical theatre performers age 16 and up.
  • Musicals 101 – John Henrick’s vast resource for everything you ever wanted to know about the American musical.
  • StageAgent is a web service dedicated to the performers and producers of musicals, dramas, and operas. Has casting requirements (character descriptions, vocal ranges, etc.) for shows.
  • Music Theatre International has information for the many shows that it holds the licenses for. Includes information on some shows not included at StageAgent.

Art Song

Opera

  • Operabase contains databases of performances, opera companies, and artists, cross-referenced so that you can find out who is singing what, where, and when.
  • Opera Arias Database is a great resource for finding appropriate roles and arias for performance and auditions, searchable by many parameters.
  • The Aria Database is similar to Opera Arias Database, although a little smaller.
  • OperaPulse – “OperaPulse is leading a movement, online and offline, to help build up your opera community and propel this magnificent art form well into the 21st Century.”
  • Ópera Actual – “la revista de ópera de España con toda la ópera del mundo”. (“the opera magazine from Spain with all of the opera of the world”). A very well done magazine in print and web formats.
  • NATS published an article about helpful blogs called 50 Best Blogs for Opera Students. Vocalability.com was mentioned in the article.

Vocal Pedagogy Blogs

Vocal anatomy and function

Sheet music

Miscellaneous

Books on Singing

  • The Old Italian School of Singing: A Theoretical and Practical Guide, Daniela Bloem-Hubatka. McFarland and Company. A well-researched and practical book that documents the actual materials and procedures for technical development in the 19th century. This book cleared up the controversy around the “coup de glotte” for me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
  • The Human Nature of the Singing Voice by Peter T. Harrison. An astonishingly deep examination of what a functionally-oriented pedagogy for singing entails. His writing style is clear and friendly, and is a much needed addition to the vocal pedagogy canon. He has a clear mission of staying with “How do we actually get there as singers and teachers?”, as opposed to yet another book about science or theory. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
  • Hints on Singing, Manuel Garcia, Jr. Available as a free download from the Petrucci Music Library. Garcia lived from 1805-1906 and was probably the most influential teacher of the 19th century, having left two well-written, detailed books about singing which provide much information about the very different emphases in technical training compared to the current norm.
  • Discover Your Voice: How to Develop Healthy Voice Habits (1996), Oren L. Brown. Singular Publishing Group, Inc. Comes with a CD of exercises. Interesting and useful book about healthy singing.
  • Singing Redefined: A conceptual approach to singing (1998), Walter C. Foster. Recital Publications. “A conceptual approach to singing, including a study of the emotional process and the imaginative capacity, linguistic and musical awareness, singing concepts based on the responsive nature of the instrument, and exercises designed to promote a technically correct, artistically expressive singing tone.” The exercises in the back are well worth the investment.
  • Singing and Imagination: A Human Approach to a Great Musical Tradition (1998), Thomas Hemsley. Oxford University Press. Self-explanatory title.
  • The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing (2007), W. Stephen Smith. Oxford University Press. Includes a CD of exercises sung by many different singers. A fresh approach to acquisition of a balanced vocal technique.
  • A Dictionary of Vocal Terminology (1983) , Cornelius L. Reid. Recital Publications
  • Essays on the Nature of Singing (1992), Cornelius L. Reid. Recital Publications If you only read one of his books, this is the one. It is his most recent, which reflects his pedagogy after 50 years of teaching and research. As radical and refreshing today as Bel Canto was in 1950, but much easier reading due to better editing.
  • Various free historical pedagogy texts at voice-talk.net.

Helpful Books for All

  • Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown. A short and entertaining read about factors that contribute to success. It takes the mystery out of the apparent superiority of high-achieving people in sports, business, and the arts.
  • The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, Michael A. Singer. New Harbinger Publications/ Noetic Books. “The Untethered Soul is indeed one of the finest treatments of the nature and practice of the conscious use of consciousness that I have ever read…. It is the clearest statement I know of who we are and what we face in our emerging humanity.” – Jean Houston
  • Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life, Byron Katie. Harmony. “Remember the phrase “question authority”? Loving What Is is a workbook on questioning authority–but in this case, what is in question is the authority of our own fundamental beliefs…” – Jill Lightner